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THEOSOPHY AND
NEW THOUGHT

HENKY C. SHELDON

THE ABINGDON PRESS
HET YOKK CINCINNATI

r^'

TITE MEv: V :/■■'.
rUBLiC LIDKARY

747554

ASTOR, LENOX AMD
TILDEN FOUN'D*r;ON8

19.7

•• .*, • •

Vj: Copyright, l?i«. -i?y
• ' MBNRY<): SHELDON

» •

- •
« ■ * -

• t • • •

• • •

CONTENTS

CBAPTKB FAOB

Preface 7

PART I— Theosophy

L Historical Outlines 11

II. Appraisement of Theosophy by

Theosophists 20

III. The Attitude Assumed Toward

Competing Faiths 24

IV. The Basis of Authority 38

V. The Doctrine of God 47

VI. COSMOLOOICAL THEORIES 56

VII. Conceptions op Man and His

Destiny 70

VIII. The Theosophic Principle of

Authority Tested 89

IX. Comments on Prominent Fea-
tures OF THE ThEOSOPHICAL

System Ill

PART II— New Thought

I. General Sketch 129

II. The Doctrine op Man 143

III, The Conception of God and of

Man's Relation to Him 152

IV. The Therapeutic Scheme 164

V. Some Grounds of Criticism 171

PREFACE

The double title given to the book
is not meant to imply that Theosophy
and New Thought are approximately
identical. The inclusion of the two
in a single volmne is rather a matter
of convenience than of logical clas-
sification. We rec<^ni;&e that, while
they have distinct points of similar-
ity, they also exhibit quite apparent
contrasts in spirit and content. In
particular the intemperate speculation
and headlong Orientalism of Theosophy
are but partially reflected in New
Thought. Both, however, make very
high claims, and this fact justifies the
subjecting of them to close scrutiny.

PART I
THEOSOPHY

CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL OUTLINES

The type of Theosophy which is
here examined is of very recent date.
Whatever may be the age of some of
its ingredients, it first began to be
compomided in 1875. In the fall of
that year the Theosophical Society
was started in New York city. The
most efficient agent in its origination
was a Russian woman whose maiden
I name was Helena Petrovna Hahn, but
who — ^from the name of N. B. Blavat-
sky, her first and only legal husband
whom she left after a three months'
trial — ^is known as Madame Blavatsky.
Closely associated with her, and her
constant coadjutor till her death, was
H. S. Olcott, commonly mentioned by

I the title of Colonel, which he gained
in the Civil War. W. Q. Judge, who,
11

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

after Olcott, became one of the most
conspicuous among American repie-
sentatives of Theosophy, was also coin
nected with the Society from the first
The earlier life of Madame Blavataky
lies partly in the mist. The asoer-
tained facts are that she was ma^f
ried in lS48y at the age of seventeen; I
that after deserting her husband shej
led a wandering life for twenty-fi^''
years, being found at intervals in
Paris, London, Russia, Greece, Egypt^
the United States, Mexico, and Indk
For at least a considerable part cf
this period she was interested in occult- 1
ism, and it is probable that in btfjf
Eastern travels she came into sufficieot
contact with professional magicians to
learn somewhat of their art. Frott
the testimony of members of her owt'{
family it is known that even in chi]|>
hood she was characterized by peajlr
liar psychic gifts, or abilities to figuifl
as a ^'medium,'' and there is cleir
evidence that as early as 1858 sb

HISTORICAL OUTLINES

jame distinctly affiliated with Spir-
alism.^ Thirteen years later (1871)
5 attempted to found ^'a sort of
ritual society at Cairo, upon a basis
phenomena." This proved to be a
imentable fiasco,"* but her interest
Spiritualism was not dampened by
$ miserable outcome, and on her
ival at New York in 1873 she
ight cooperation with the mediums
LOse reputed marvels at that time
re attracting much attention. The
mection was brief, since exposure of
udulent proceedings greatly abridged
blic interest in spiritualistic per-
mances. It was thought best to
^ a new scheme. And so resort
s made to Theosophy as being at
se less exposed to hostile judgment,
i fumishmg abundant means for
ttifying an appetite for occultism,
e result was the founding of the
leosophical Society. As was ob-

iStler off Biadame Bl»T»toky cited by Olcott in The Theoe-
H, Auguet, 1892.

Meoti, Old Diary Leavee, pp. 22, 23.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

served, this took place in the fall
of 1875.

For the next two years Madame'V
Blavatsky^s energies were mainly de-l^
voted to the writing of the first nota-V
ble manifesto of modem Theosophy,!
the work in two ponderous volumefll^
entitled Isis Unveiled. Near the clofle r
of 1878 she went with Oleott to India. V
Here an appreciable success was wcml
The attempt to amalgamate Hie
Theosophical Society with the Aiya
Samaj miscarried, it is true, but Hie
flattering tributes paid to Hindu pK-
losophy and religion, aided by the im- j ^
pression made by the reputed marveb, '
especially at the headquarters in Adyir, r
secured the adhesion of a considerafafcr
number of the natives, as also rf
several European residents. A chefk
to propagandism occurred in 1884-ff
by reason of the publication, first mr
the Madras Christian College Magazine r
and then in the Proceedings of iknir
Society for Psychical Research, of evt P

HISTORICAL OUTLINES

dences of fraud in the alleged marvels
at Adyar. The evidences were over-
ivhelming; but the Theosophical lead-
ers met them with denials and con-
tinued to labor energetically for their
scheme. Madame Blavatsky began,
under the title of "The Secret Doc-
trine," the work which largely occupied
her later years, and which is commonly
ranked as the magnum opus of modem
Theosophy • It is her most elaborate con-
tribution to the literatiu^ of her school,
though m point of serviceable introduc-
tion to her matiu^d theories her Key to
Theosophy might be given precedence.
The death of Madame Blavatsky
occurred in 1891. An estimate of
lier character will hardly be avoidable
pvhen we come to consider the grounds
rf authority claimed for the Theosophi-
cal system. In the present connection
it will suffice to repeat the character-
ization given by one who was con-
tinuously in her company for the
Larger part of her career as a Theos-

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

ophist, and who claimed to have re-
vised, as to form, nearly every page
of her English writings. "If there ever
existed a person in history,'' writes
Olcott, "who was a greater conglom-
eration of good and bad, light and
shadow, wisdom and indiscretion, spi^
itual insight and lack of common I
sense, I cannot recall the name, the I
circumstances, or the epoch."'

At the time when the exposure made
by the report of the Society for Psrf-
chical Research cast a cloud over the
prospects of the Theosophical move-
ment, it won in the person of MiB. I
Annie Besant an adherent whose gift I
as public speaker and as writer vm
to serve as an important asset. SoijM
years earlier this woman had 1^
home, husband, and infant, joined tlie
Free Thought Society in London, afid
become an intense advocate of an
atheistic and socialistic platform. Bj
an apparently sudden turn she ex*

* Oloott, Old Diary Leftvee, Forewcxrd, p. viL

HISTORICAL OUTLINES

changed her rank skepticism for the
complex aflSrmations of Theosophy.

Shortly after the death of Madame
Blavatsky a schism occurred in the
Theosophical Society. Up to that
time Olcott had served as president
and W. Q. Judge as vice-president.
The conviction now entered the mind
of Judge that the first place was due
to him. Accordingly, he went dil-
igently to work, resorting among other
expedients to letters in his interest
which purported to come from the
Mahatmas who were supposed to use
the Society as the chosen mouthpiece
of thfeir superior wisdom. Olcott was
sufficieiitly overawed to resign. But
he was in possession of very cogent
evidence that Judge himself was the
author of the Mahatma letters which
favored his promotion. ' In the issue
he withdrew his resignation and
found opportimity to convince Mrs.
Besant that Judge had played false.
However, an attempt was made to

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

avoid scandal and to hush up the
matter. This was not wholly success-
ful, and the result was that Judge
broke away from the party of Olcott
and Besanty taking with him a ma-
jority of the American Theosophists.
After his death in 1896 Mrs. Katherine
Tingley was invested with the pres-
idency of the American branch, with
Point Loma, California, as the head-
quarters. On the death of Olcott in
1907 Mrs. Besant took his place as
president. The schism remained un-
healed, and goes to show that the
treasure of Theosophy was committed
to earthen vessels. That the membeiB
of the Society were quite accessitde
to mundane motives and tempers was
proved at an earlier point ; for Madame
Blavatsky in her day admitted that
there was as much backbiting, slan-
dering, and quarrehng in the Theo-
sophical Society, as in the Christian
churches, let alone scientific societies.*

* Key to Theoiophy, pp. 250-252.

HISTORICAL OUTLINES

Among those who supported the
Theosophieal movement in India a
prominent place was taken by A. P.
Sinnett, and his writings make a con-
siderable factor in the literature of
the movement. A later contributor
to that literature is C. W. Leadbeater,
in recent years closely associated with
Mrs. Besant at the headquarters in
Madras, though for a period (1905-
1909) he was constrained to (Usconnect
himself from the Society on the score
of the charge of disseminating inmioral
teaching among boys. A defense of
this teaching by an American Theos-
ophist, Van Hoek, was sharply chal-
lenged in England. On the refusal
of the General Coimcil to withdraw this
document ''a body of seven hundred
British Theosophists, including nearly
all the cultured and influential mem-
bers in the country^ and a number
in other lands, left the Society."^

• J. N. Fuqahar, Modem BeUsioas Movements in Indin, pp. 273,
274.

CHAPTER II

^APPRAISEMENT OF THEOSOPHY
BY THEOSOPHISTS

The terms in which the leading
exponents of Theosophy extol their
religio-philosophicaJ scheme vie with
the emphatic language in which M«uy
Baker G. Eddy described her religio-
medical dispensation. In one respect
a relative modesty characterizes the
claims of the former party. They »•
nounce the honor of originality, as
also of direct divme inspiration. Thpir
teaching, they say, is identical wS
a primitive Wisdom-Religion, and tibll
has been in the world for an inmiense
period, havmg been handed on bj
a Ime of highly perfected men, vari-
ously designated as Mahatmas, Adeptei
Initiates, Masters, and the Wh?de
Brotherhood. But while they are east

APPRAISEMENT OF THEOSOPHY

I tent to assume the rdle of trans-
mitterSy they enormously magnify their
vocation, in that they claim to possess
truth in all its depth and amplitude.
Let a few statements illustrate. '^Mod-
em science," says Madame Blavatsky,
'^is ancient thought distorted and no
more."^ "The secret doctrine of the
East contains the Alpha and Omega
of universal science."* "Our work is
a plea for the recognition of the

- Hermetic philosophy, the anciently
universal Wisdom-Religion, as the only
possible key to the Absolute in sci-
ence and theology."' "The Wisdom-

^ Religion was ever one and the same,

^ and being the last word of possible
human knowledge was therefore care-
fully preserved. It preceded by long
ages the Alexandrian Theosophists,
reached the modem, and will survive
every other religion and philosophy."*

: 1 The Saoet Doctrine, I. 579.
■ *tUd^ m. 22.

• lib UnvcOecl, Fkvlmoe.
I * Ke^ to TheoBophy, p. 9.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

"Religion," writes Olcott, "has but
one foundation — ^Theosophy."*^ "Mod-
em metaphysics," observes Sinnett,
"and to a large extent modem physical
science, have been groping for cen-
turies blindly after knowledge which
occult philosophy has enjoyed in full
measure all the while."^ "Theosophy
is the essence of religion and of all
religions worthy of the name."^ "The-
osophy," asserts Judge, "is that ocean
of knowledge which spreads from shore
to shore of the evolution of sentient
beings. . . . Embracing both the scien-
tific and the religious, Theosophy is a
scientific religion and a reUgious sci-
ence."® In short, the whole round
of important tmth, metaphysical,
religious, and scientific, is claimed for
Theosophy. It is described as the one
source of adequate guidance, and, ac-
cording to Madame Blavatsky, its

* Theosophy, Religion, and OocuH Sdenoe, p. 89.

• The OeeoH Wofid, p. 1.

' The Growth off the Soul, p. 42.
>The Oeean of Theoecqiihy, p. 1.

]

APPRAISEMENT OF THEOSOPHY

illuminating rays did not break through
the fog of hmnan systems any too
soon. "Had the formation of the
Theosophical Society/' she aflfirms,
"been postponed a few years longer,
one half of the civilized nations would
have become by this time rank ma-
terialists, and the other half anthro-
pomorphists and phenomenalists."*

• Key to Tfaeoeophy, p. 36.

CHAPTER III

THE ATTITUDE ASSUMED

TOWARD COMPETING

FAITHS

The placing of Theosophy upon such
a lofty plane and the assignment to
it of such a wide province were nat-
urally accompanied by disparaging ref-
erences to rival systems. In this
adverse judgment the Spiritualism with
which it was historically connected, and
out of which in a sense it emerged,
was not spared. Madame Blavatsky
took pains in her first work to speak
of it in slighting terms. She declared
that the materialized forms produced
in seances were not the actual forms
of the persons with whom communica-
tion was supposed to be made, ^^nt
rather, their portrait statues, con-
structed, animated, and operated by

4
I,

COMPETING FAITHS

the elementaries. ^ ^^ She stated, further,
that the passivity which is a condition
of effective mediumship is a source
of exposure to foreign and deleterious
influences, as is made plain by the
notorious fact that mediums are gen-
erally either sickly or, what is worse,
inclined to some abnormal vice.^ In
her Key to Theosophy she taught
that the spirits of the dead cannot
return to earth except in rare cases,
and that materializations and such like
phenomena are produced by the astral
double of the medium or of some one
present, or by the astral shells of
vanished personalities, or by elemen-
tals, never by the conscious individ-
uality of the disembodied.* Further
on in the same treatise she makes
this statement: "Theosophists accept
the phenomena of ^materialization,' but
reject the theory that it is produced

1 Im Umreiled, I. 70.

< Ibid., I. 490.

• Key to Theotophy, pp. 28. 29.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

by 'spirits'; that is, the immortal
principles of disembodied persons.
Theosophists hold that when the
phenomena are genuine — ^which is a
fact of rarer occurrence than is gen-
erally believed — ^they are produced by
larvcBy the eidolons or kamalokic
'ghosts' of the dead personalities."*
She also records the judgment that
medimnship opens the door to ''a
swarm of spooks good, bad, and in-
different/' "All this dealing with the
dead is necromancy and a most dan-
gerous practice."* In line with these
sharp criticisms, she sometimes speci-
fied the putting down of Spiritualism
as one of the main objects of Theos-
ophy.^ Similar estimates of Spiritual-
ism and its phenomena might be cited
from other writers. But not all ex-
ponents of Theosophy are given to
quite so radical a disparagement. Thus

• Key to Theoflopliy, p. 336.

• Ibid., pp. 18»-193.

• Letter written in 1884 and cited by lillie, Madame Blayataky
and her Tbeoeophy, p. 16.

COMPETING FAITHS

W. J. Colville makes room for • a
legitimate order of spiritualistic trans-
actions. ^^Medinmship," he says, "has
often been an erratic manifestation of
spiritual power, but in its highest
phases it is strictly theosophical,
though in its lowest it is nothing more
than yay magic/ ''' The point of view
contained in these words would seem
to have made some progress in recent
years. We note that an English ob-
server makes bold to state, 'There is
no talk now about putting down Spirit-
ualism; in fact, the two cults are at
present coquetting affectionately."*
Whatever their differences and incom-
patibilities, they have a connecting
bond in their common appetite for oc-
cult and strange phenomena.

The vitality of its interest in occult-
ism serves also to give to Theosophy
a certain association with astrology,

I 7 studies in Tbeoeophy, 1891, p. 224. Compare E. C. Farns-
worth, ^[>ecial TeaebmfB from the Arcane Sdenoe, pp. 150, 100.
* Maakelyiie, Hie Fraud of Modem Theosophy, seoond editum,
1912, p. 30.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

though the fonnal attitude assumed
toward the latter by the advocates of
the fonner has not been imifonn.
Madame Blavatsky was distinctly ap-
preciative. "It is now amply proved,"
she wrote, "that horoscopes and ju-
diciary astrology are not quite based
on fiction, and that the stars and
constellations, consequently, have an
occult and mysterious influence on,
and connection with, mdividuals. And
if with the latter, why not with na-
tions, races, and mankind in bulk?'^
Again she remarked: "Every student
of occultism knows that the heavenly
bodies are closely related during each
Manvantara with the mankind of that
special cycle; and there are some who
believe that each great character bom
durmg that period has as every other
mortal has — only in far stronger degree
— his destiny outlined within its proper
constellation or star."^® The position

• The Se<vet Doetrine. I. 647.
» Ibid.. III. 341.

COMPETING FAITHS

of the founder, as thus indicated, was
not followed by the whole body of
Theosophists. *The members of the
Society/^ says G. R. S. Mead, ''take
up the most divergent and contra-
dictory attitudes with regard to astrol-
ogy; some believe in it with various
qualifications, a few even make it a
religion, as it were; some ridicule it
as an absurd superstition, and pro-
claim the astrologer a charlatan; the
majority are inclined to think there
may be something m it, but are
content to admit their ignorance of
the art, and what is more their in-
difference to it."" The writer of this
extract may be presumed to have
beep well informed; but we surmise
that it will be foimd difl&cult for
Theosophists as a body, with their
bent to magnify the worth of the
mystical and magical scheme of an-
tiquity, to take up an attitude of
sheer indifference toward astrology.

u Eztracti from The Vahan, edited by Sarah Corbettt p. 616.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGH!

As respects the great reli^ons, Tb
osophy asserts a bn^ propositM
which might seem to imply that th<
stand upon a substantial parity,
pronounces them all to be identic
in their esoteric content, howev
widely they may be contrasted
their exoteric or popular form. "Thee
ophy," says Leadbeater, "is ide
tical with esoteric Buddhism ai
Hinduism, but then so it is wi
esoteric Zoroastrianism, esoteric M
hanmiedanism, and esoteric Christia
ity."" In less direct terms the fc
lowing words of Mrs. Besant emphaa
the idea that fundamentally the gre
religions are one: "Whether the persi
pray to Buddha, to Vishnu, to Chrii
to the Father, it matters not
aU."^'

But notwithstanding this form
proposition on the underljring identr
of religions, Theosophical writings co

B Eztncta from The Vafattn. p. 4.
» Tbe SercA Prindples ai Man, p. 5S.

COMPETING FAITHS

n not a little in the line of a rei-
ve disparagement of Christianity
i a relative glorification of the
ding systems of the East, especially
)se which hav^ had their historic
^ater in India. In general, the
unpions of Theosophy speak of
iristian missionaries in very con-
nptuons terms, and some of them
^e abundant evidences of a veritable
te toward Christianity. This is
phatically true of Madame Blavat-
f. In various ways she gives ex-
^on to her appetite for a virtual
ification. "The Israelitish Scrip-
res," she says, "drew their hidden
3dom from the primal Wisdom-
iligion that was the source of the
ler Scriptures, only it was sadly
graded by bemg appUed to things
d mysteries of this earth, mstead
those in the higher and ever-
3sent, though invisible, spheres."^*
e charges the Biblical reUgion with

TbB Seeret Doctrine, m. 172.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT ^

wholesale borrowing, "While the doc-
trines, ethical code, and observances
of the Christian religion were all ap-
propriated from Brahmanism and Bud-
dhism, its ceremonies, vestments, and
pageantry were taken bodily from
Lamaism."^* And much of this bor-'
rowing would seem not to have had
the merit of being at first hand, for
she tells us in another connection:
"The doctrines of the Gospels, and
even of the Old Testament, have been
taken bodily from the book of Enoch.
The whole of the Pentateuch was
adapted to fit in with the facts given."^*
On the character of the Pentateuch
she makes this envenomed comment:
"In its hidden meaning, from Genesis
to the last word of Deuteronomy, the
Pentateuch is the symbolical narrative
of the sexes, and is an apotheosis of ^
Phallicism, imder astronomical and
physiological personations.^'^^ Scarcely

^ laa Unvefled, II. 211.
^ The Secret Doetrixie, III. 87.
" The Secret Doctrine, III. 172, 173.

COMPETING FAITHS

more complimentary is her estimate
of the supreme objects of worship
recognized by Christianity. She names
the gods of so-called monotheistic re-
ligions ''a bla^hemous and sorry cari-
cature of the ever unknowable/ ^^^ and
affirms of Jehovah, ^'It is only in the
capacity of the genius of the moon,
the latter being credited in the old
cosmogony with being the parent of
the earth, that he can ever be re-
garded as the creator of our globe/'^*
With an obvious intent to heap scom
upon Catholic Christianity, she extols
Simon Magus and rates his system ''as
near to Occult Truth as any/^^

The most thq^t Madame Blavatsky
concedes to Christianity is that Jesus
in respect of disposition was ''as noble
and loving'' as Gautama, and this
statemeAt she qualifies by the declara-
tion that he was handicapped by
appearing "among another and less

* IbicL, Introdttotum, p. zx.

« Ibid., n. 474.

iB Ibid., lU. 113, 465, 466.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGH

spiritual race/'*^ In repeated instaii<

she affirms the primacy of India

religion and philosophy. ''It is ma

tained," she writes, "that India

the only comitry in the world wh

still has among her sons adepts \«

have the knowledge of the seven s

tems. . • • As f or the Hebrews, tl:

never had the higher keys."^ 6

reads a lesson of humility to Christ:

scholars who have dealt with Easti

systems in these terms: "One nc

not go very deep into the literati

of the Orientalists to become convin(

that in most cases they do not e\

suspect that in the arcane philosop

of India there are depths which tl

have not sounded, and cannot soui

for they pass on without perceivi
them/'23

While Madame Blavatsky outn
the great majority of Theosophi
writers in the measure of her see:

« The Secret Doetxine, III. 382.

« Ibid., I. 311.

» Ibb UnveOed, U. 102, 103.

COMPETING FAITHS

ful references to the Bible and Chris-
tianity, a spice of the same element
enters into the literature of the entire
school. In rare instances, as in case
of Colville, a serious effort may be
made to place the Christian religion
on a parity with the leading systems
of India; but even in these instances
this measure of credit is given not
to historic Christianity, but to the
scheme which Theosophic dogmatism
has constructed largely out of Hindu
materials and has chosen to identify
with esoteric Christianity. Either im-
plicitly or explicitly the preference for
the faiths of India comes to expres-
sion. The explicit form appears in
the remark of Judge: ^'Buddhism is
the last of the great Avatars, and is
in a larger circle than is Jesus of the
Jews."^ Equally clear in their testi-
mony to the direction of preference
are the words of Leadbeater: "The
broad outlines of the great truths

MThe Ooean of Tlieoeophy, p. 120.

CHAPTER IV
THE BASIS OF AUTHORITY

On this theme two leading assump-
tions nm through Theosophical writ-
mgs: (1) There exists, and has existed
from time immemorial, a body of
advanced men, named Adepts, Mahat-
mas, Initiates, etc., who have served
as depositaries of the primitive Wis-
dom-Religion, and who are the only
competent interpreters of man and the
universe to whom any access is pro-
vided. (2) This body of advanced
men makes use of selected members
of the Theosophical Society as instru-
ments for disseminating such portions
of theh- superior knowledge as may {
fitly be imparted to the present age.

Leading Theosophical writers treat
both of these assiunptions as alike
fundamental and indisputable. The

COMPETmG FAITHS

in India has any idea of the indescrib-
able rubbish wUch Theosophy has pre*
sented to its Hindu members."*'

tf J. N. Fwquhar. Modn BsUfioitf MoyeoMats u ladiA. 1918,

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

omniscience as regards mundane af-
fairs."^ He even expresses the beli^
that they are as far above ordinary
mankind as man is above the insects
of the field,^ Their word, Judge tells
us, has finaUty against any competing
authority. ^^Let science laugh as it
may, the Adepts are the only true
scientists. . • . The records of the
visions of the greater and lesser seers,
through the ages, are extant to-day.
Of then- mass nothing has been ac-
cepted except that which has been
checked and verified by millions of
independent observations. ... K we
find the Adepts stating that the moon
is not a mass thrown off from the
earth in cooling, but on the contrary
the progenitor of this globe, we need
not fear the jeers of a science that
is as uncertain and unsafe in many
things as it is positive."* J. D. Buck
expresses a like view of the relative

« The OcouH World, p. 16.

* Esoteric Buddhiam, p. 202.

* Echoes from the Orient, pp. 10-14.

THE BASIS OF AUTHORITY

competency of the Adepts, classing
them as men ^Vho possess a knowl-
edge of science so profound as to
dwarf into insignificance our boasted
modem discoveries."^

One important source at the com-
mand of the Adepts is an unparalleled
collection of the world's literature.
This unique advantage is thus de-
picted by Madame Blavatsky: "The
members of several esoteric schools —
the seat of which is beyond the Him-
alayas — claim to have in their posses-
sion the sum total of sacred and phil-
osophical works m manuscript and
type: all the works, in fact, that have
ever been written, m whatever lan-
guage or characters, since the art of
writmg began; from the ideographic
hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of
Cadmus and the Devanagan.^'* With
this statement she couples a report
of the existence in the subterranean

* The Nature and Aim of Theooophy, p. 32.

* The Secret Doctrine, Introduction, p. xziii.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

passages under a single hamlet, located
in a mountain gorge, of a collection
of books too large to find accommodar
tion in the British Museum.

The principal habitat of the Adepts
is commonly placed by Theosopbical
opinion m Tibet. "They constitute,"
writes Sinnett, "a Brotherhood, or Se-
cret Association, that ramifies all ov^
the East, but the principal seat of'
which for the present I gather to be
in Tibet.''^ Olcott evidently regarded
this as the orthodox view when he
wrote: "On the high plateau of the
Himavat are men who know psychol-
ogy, men who are the successors d
a thousand generations of Aryan and
Hindu sages, who all this time have
known what man is and what his
powers are.''^

On the closeness of the bond be-
tween the Adepts and the Theosopbical
Society our informants would have us

Y The Oooult World, p. 24.

• Tbeoflofihy, B«licioii, and Oocnlt Sdenoe, pp. 186» 187.

THE BASIS OP AUTHORITY

iinderstand that there is no just ground
^or question. This point is obviously,
lor them, of great practical moment,
dnce the existence of Adepts would
be no sort of a credential for their
system apart from the assumed choice
di the Adepts to use them as a channel
For their superior wisdom. As a matter
df fact, the most conspicuous exponents
of Theosophy have followed the path
3f logical consistency, and have not
been deterred by an undue modesty
From claiming the cooperation of the
Great Brotherhood. Madame Blavat-
sky represented herself as only a kind
of secondary agent in the production
of the works bearing her name. In
the announcement of Isis Unveiled she
said: "The work now submitted to
public judgment is the fruit of a some-
what intimate acquaintance with East-
em Adepts and study of their science. "•
Doubtless it was on the basis of her
testimony that Sinnett felt authorized

* lais Unveiled, Preface.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

to report that great patches of the
treatise were contributed outright by
the Brothers. ^^ On her essentially
instrumental position in the producidon
of The Secret Doctrinei Madame Bla-
vatsky was very outspoken, declaring
in the preface, 'This work is a partial
statement of what the author has
been taught by more advanced stu-
dentSy supplemented, in a few details
only, by the results of her own study
and observation." Elsewhere ste
styled the Mahatmas the founders
and guardians of the Theosophical
Society, "We call them,*' she said,
" 'Masters' because they are our teach-
ers, and because from them we have
derived all the Theosophical truths,
however inadequately some of us have
expressed them, and others imderstood
them."^^ As is indicated by this state-
ment, she was too prudent to make
the gentlemen behind the veil respon-

« The Occult World, p. 160.
UTbe Key to Tbeotopliy, pp. 275, 277.

THE BASIS OP AUTHORITY

dble for all verbal peculiarities in
rheosophical writings. While she as-
serts that ''there are passages entirely
iictated by them verbatim/' she adds,
^Tbut in most cases they only inspire
bhe ideas, and leave the literary form
bo the writers."" So speaks the high
priestess of Theosophy, and it is evi-
d^itly but a sober statement of her
teacMng which is given us in this
proposition: "The Theosophical Society
is the mediimi through which the
Brothers have imdertaken to present
to the world their long-cherished doc-
trines, in such form as the world is
found ready to receive."^^

It will perhaps be objected to the
above that Theosophists have some-
times asserted that members of their
Society are privileged to be neutral
on the question of the existence and
agency of Mahatmas. But the mo-
tive for such statements has not come

ttlbid., p. 278.

» Bock, The Natun and Aim of Theoaophy, pp. 34. 35.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

from the logic of their system, but,
rather, from the difficulty of securing ,
any sort of credibility to the postulate
on the actual existence of Mahatmas.
Mrs. Besant, however she may have
expressed herself elsewhere, simply con-
formed to the logical demand when
she said: ^^If there are no Masters,
then the Theosophical Society is an
absurdity/'^*

>« Article in Ludfer, Deoember, 1890^ died by Q«B6tt» Uk
Very Much Unveiled, pp. 106, 107.

i
B

CHAPTER V

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

On this subject Theosophic Dog-
aatism is characterized in the first
>lace by a resolute denial of the per-
onality of God, that is, of God con-
idered as the Highest Being, the Ab-
olute, "We reject,'' says Madame
ilavatsky, "the idea of a personal
)r extraKJOsmic and anthropomorphic
jrod,"^ and from other statements we
gather that the rejection extends to
he assiunption of divine personality
n any form in which it has had cur-
rency in the Christian Church. Her
:undamental preference for the imper-
sonal appears in her substitution of
^'Universal Principle" or "Absolute
Principle" for the name of God, as
also in such declarations as that the

^Tbe Key to Theoflopliy, p. 61.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

Absolute does not think or exist but
is, rather, thought and existence.* ,
Scarcely less distinctly it appears in
her rating of Von Hartmann's philos-
ophy as the highest philosophy of
the West,^ To a Being thus con-
ceived, creation, as the execution of
plan or purpose, must evidently be
counted foreign, and we have in place
of it the notion of an inexplicable *
alternation of the differentiation and
reabsorption of the world. "The eso-
teric doctrine," writes Madame Bla-
vatsky, "teaches, like Buddhism and
Brahmanism, and even the persecuted
Kabala, that the one infinite and un-
known essence exists from all eternity,
and in regular and harmonious suc-
cessions is either passive or active.
In the poetical phraseology of Manu
these conditions are called the 'day*
and the 'night' of Brahma."* Con-

* The Key to Theoeophy, pp. 64, 66.

I The Seoiet Doctrine, I. 281. <

' « Irfe UnveOed, II. 264. Compare Judge, Ocean of Theoiopbr |
pp. 14, 16.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

sistently with the negation of the
personality of God, Madame Blavatsky
rules out the propriety of prayer^
except in the sense of an internal
command; and this she decides to let
pass as a prayer to the Father in
heaven in the esoteric meaning of the
phrase — ^that is, to God in man him-
self .^ An equivalent interpretation of
the Father in heaven has been proffered
by A. A. Wells/ Some representatives
of Theosophy may have been rather
more appreciative of prayer in its
objective relation than was the foim-
dress, but in common they reject the
personality of the Supreme Being.

Closely associated with this feature
is an extreme emphasis on the tran-
scendence of God as Absolute Prin-
ciple. The vacuity into which Neo-
Platonism pushes the thought of God
is rivaled by one and another writer,
and especially by the most authori-

* Key to Theoaophy, pp. 66-68.

• Extraets from Tbe Vahan, p. 143.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

tative of all. Speculation on the
Ultimate Principle, Madame Blavatsky
informs us, is impossible. ''It is beyond
the range and reach of thought." In
spite of the paradoxical appearance of
the statement, in the Absolute is real-
ized ''the idea of eternal Non-Being
which is the One Being. It cannot
be conceived to have any relation to
the finite and conditioned."^ "As to
the Absolute," says Judge, "we can
do no more than say. It Is. None of
the great teachers of the School ascribe
qualities to the Absolute."* "The
term Absolute," remarks G. R. S.
Mead, "must be kept for the idea
of the Deity beyond being."*

It is quite obvious that in pursuing
this point of view the exponents of
Theosophy have not respected greatly
either the claims of rationality or of
self-consistency. They might have re-

7 The Secret Doctrine, I. 14, 45, III. 906; The Key to Theot>
ophy, pp. 61, 62.

> The Ocean of Theosophy, pp. 14, 15.
Extracts from the Vahan, p. 092.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

minded themselves that to place the
Absolute beyond being is no more
eligible than to place Him below being,
since either form of expression relegates
him to nonentity or negates his being,
and involves also the feat of getting
a plenum out of a vacaunij since all
thmgs are confessedly from the Ab-
solute. They would likewise have
written to better edification if, while
declaring the Absolute to be incon-
ceivable, they had not applied to it
sucb terms as Omnipresent, Eternal,
Boundless, and Immutable; for these
terms, if there is any justification for
using them, fulfill a descriptive func-
tion, while yet the strictly inconceiv-
able is entirely out of the range of
description. Equally, a normal respect
for the demands of self-consistency
would have vetoed the combination of
the statement, that ''all that which
is emanates from the Absolute,"^® with

* Blavstaky, The Secret Doctrine, I. 295; Judce, The Ocean
of Theoeopfayi pp. 14, 16.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGH

the declaxation that the Absolute <
have no relation with the finite t
conditioned, the rational verdict be
that between source and product th
is unavoidably a real relation. L
all utra dogmatism which makes a p
tense of agnosticism and high-1
ing transcendentalism, Theosophy g
badly mixed up in its exposition
ultimate reaUty.

What has been said thus far
the present chapter implies that
Theosophical doctrine of God and
universe is roundly pantheistic. The
ophists are not at all backward
confessing that their doctrine has t
character. Mrs. Besant says that "
Wisdom-Religion teaches a profou
pantheism," that technically she i
pantheist, and that "in theology The
ophy is pantheistic."" Madame E
vatdcy abimdantly illustrates ev(
prominent feature of the radical Br

» Ezpoiition of Tbeotopby, pfi. 0, 28; Why I Am a Theoso
p. 18.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

manical pantheism which finds its cul-
mination in the Vedanta system. As
has been noted^ she adopts the theory
of differentiations from the Absolute,
alternating with reabsorptions. In her
interpretation the evolved world is a
temporary illusion, as unreal as the
reflection of the moon on the surface
of the waters. As all is from the
Absolute, evil has no other source;
m fact, good and evil are aspects or
sides of the One Being. To aU grades
of individuated being reabsorption is
the appointed destiny. The Gods at
the end of the cycle are merged in
the one Absolute."

Madame Blavatsky is credited with
having used in one connection the
words: "There is no God, personal
or impersonal."^ But this atheistic
declaration is too exceptional to be
emphasized. Properly she is character-

tt las Unveiled, II. 264; The Secret Doctrine, I. 281, 295, 413,
414; II. 515; III. 449, 460; Key to Theoeophy, pp. 63, 83, 111.
132; The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, p. 49.

» Cited £rom tbe Theosophist, May, 1882.

53 li.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

ized as a radical pantheist, with a
leaning to polytheism as against mono-
theism. This leaning comes out, on
the one hand, in contemptuous refer-
ences to the monotheistic religions/^
and, on the other, in polytheistic repre-
sentations of the creative function. In
one instance she ascribes the creation
of the bodies of men to the Lunar
Pitris and the endowment of men
with their immortal egos to the solar
angels," and m another instance she
employs this language: ''It is not the
Principle, One and Unconditioned, nor
even its reflection, that creates, but
only the Seven Gods who fashion the
universe out of eternal matter, unified
into objective life by the reflection
into it of the One Reality/'^ This
polytheistic phase is clearly duplicated
by Mrs. Besant. "Each Logos,'* she
writes, "is to his own universe the
central object of adoration, and his

^ The Seoret Doctrine, Introduotion, p. zz, II. 1S8.
>• Ibid.. II. 88, 89.
» The Seeret Doetrine, III. 200.

THE DOCTRINE OP GOD

radiant ministers are rightly worshiped
by those who cannot rise to the con-
ception of this central deity."^^ It
might be mf erred from this statement
that we do very well to stop with the
Logos or Deity of our solar system,
and so Leadbeater advises us. ^^ Sinnett
postulates an object of reverence some-
what more local, telling us that a
Mighty Being, the Spirit of the Earth,
presides over the growth and health
of the planet.^* Evidently, in Theos-
ophy pantheism has made friends with
polytheism, and herein the assimilation
to Hinduism is very marked.

^ Some Ftoblenw ol life, pp. 82, 83.
An Outline of Theoeophy, p. 24.
i^The Growth of tlie Sodl. p. 800.

CHAPTER VI

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

Thbosophy asserts the eternity of
the world, though certamly with doubt-
ful consistency by the pen of Madame
Blavatsky. On the one hand she lays
down, as a fundamental proposition,
"the eternity of the universe in toto
as a boundless plane, periodically the
playground of numberless universes,
incessantly manifesting and disappear-
ing."^ She asserts, furthermore, that
matter is eternal, the basis on which
the Universal Mind builds its ideation.*
On the other hand she says: "The
Creative Force is eternal as noumenon;
as a phenomenal manifestation in its
aspects it has a beginning and must
therefore have an end."^ Moreover,

1 The Secret Doctrine, I. 16.

> Ibid., I. 280.

s Ibid.. I. 373, 374.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

having defined creation as the Eternal
Reality casting a periodical reflection
of itsdf on the infinite spatial depths,
she adds: "This reflection which you
regard as the objective material uni-
verse, we consider as a temporary
illusion and nothing else/'^ Putting
the various statements together we
seem to reach the conclusion that the
world, as distmguished from the Primal
Cause or Eternal Reality, had a begin-
ning as a phenomenal manifestation,
and is in fact a temporary illusion. A

^ succession of such worlds is indeed
affirmed; but it is not warrantable to
assume that the addition of the tem-

* poral inaugurates the eternal.

The thesis on the illusory character
of the world, which the foimdress
borrowed from EKndu philosophy, has
found occasional utterance in the The-
osophical camp. Thus A. A. Wells
has remarked: "We must never forget
that, after all, the great law of Karma,

* The Key to Theosophy, p. 83.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

and everything with which it deals,
axe but portions of the great illusion —
the M&y& which defends our weak
eyes from the overpowering radiance
of the divine glory/'^ There is some
groimd, however, for suspecting that
one and another among Theosophists
entertain a rather scanty appreciation
for the genume Hmdu doctrine of
M&y& or world-illusion. We notice
that Sinnett is minded to interpret
the doctrine as denoting only the
relative impermanency of the world/

Another general characteristic af-
firmed of the world is the universal
diffusion of life and even of sentiency.
Madame Blavatsky approves hylozo-
ism a^ bemg in its philosophical sense
correct pantheism.^ Everything in the
imiverse, she says, even down to the
stones, has a consciousness of its kind.*
Judge asserts that ''all nature is sen-

• Eztrmotfl from the Vahan, pp. 163, 154.

• The Growth of the Soul, pp. 100, 101.
' The Secret Dootiine, II. 158.

• lUd.. I. 274.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

tient."* "There is no diflference,"
writes Burcham Harding, "save in
degree, between the lives that are
found in the minerals, in plants and
trees, m ammal and human bodies—
for all are parts of the One Life/'^®

Madame Blavatsky has been cited
on the necessary function of the The-
osophical Society as a bulwark against
a threatening materialism. Mi^. Be-
sant dignifies the office of the Society
in similar terms. "I look upon the
reproclamation of Theosophy,'' she
says, "as the deliberate answer of
the Masters, the Adepts, to the rise
of materialism in the Western world/'^^
In view of such statements, we natur-
ally are led to expect that Theosophi-
cal writings will appear thoroughly
charged with spiritualistic or anti-
materialistic teachings. But that is
not found to be the case. If by ma-
terialism is meant a theoretic system

• The Ooean of Theoaophy, i>. 2.
^ BrotlMriiood Nftton'i Law, pp. 6, 6.
B Espodtion ci TlieoMphy, p. 39.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

of a particular tjrpe, then Theosophy
can be said, rather, to compromise
with materialism than to carry out a
consistent opposition. It does not
miif ormly assign a distinct primacy to
spirit as against matter. Doubtless
statements may be found, like the
declaration of Colville, that '^spirit is
both Alpha and Omega."" But repre-
sentations which carry a quite differ-
ent suggestion also occur. No justice
is done to the primacy of spirit in
Madame Blavatd^s declamtion that
spirit and matter "are but the two
facets of the one Absolute Existence" |"
or in the fiuther assertion, "spirit
and matter are one, being the two
opposite poles of the universal man-
ifested substance";^* or in the plain
admission that she insists upon the
identity of spirit and matter, rating
spirit as potential matter, "and matter
simply crystallized spirit, just as ice

^ Studiefl in Theosophy, p. 201.
»The Secret Doctrine, I. 326.
>* The Key to Tbeoeophy, p. 215.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

is solidified steam."" In her psycho-
logical theory, as cited by Mrs. Besant,"
she gives place to the thoroughly ma-
terialistic representation that ^ ^thought
is matter." Mrs. Besant imequivocally
adopts this point of view, and carries
it out in a series of statements as
crassly materialistic as can be found in
the literature of modem materialism.
"A Thought form," she affirms, "is
a material image created by the mind
out of the subtle matter of the higher
psychic plane in which it works. This
form, composed of the rapidly vibrating
atoms of the matter of that region,
sets up vibrations all around it."^^
"Pure and lofty thoughts," she says,
"are composed of rapid vibrations. . . .
Vibrations of consciousness are ever
shaking out one kind of matter and
building in another."^^ "Thought im-
ages," she tells us, "once generated,

iilfaid.. pp. 33. 34.

* Kanna, pp. 74, 76.
"O Kanna, p. 13.

• Thonsht Power, pp. 27, 28.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

assume an existence of their own, pass
outward into the astral realm, and act
therefrom on the minds of other men.
Influencing them to action."^ CJom-
mending the same point of view, Lead-
beater teaches that thoughts are in
a real sense thing? and to clairvoyant
sight assume form and color. Rate
of vibration, he indicates, is a prin-
cipal determinant of the grade of being.
"Physical matter may become astral,
or astral may become mental, if only
it be sufficiently subdivided, and caused
to vibrate with the proper degree of
rapidity/^^ While the soul of man,
urges Sinnett, is much more subtle
and lasting than the body, it is itself
"a material reality/^^^ With Judge
we find the comprehensive statement
that the universe exists "for the pur-
pose of raismg the entire mass of
manifested matter up to the stature,
nature, and dignity of conscious god-

^ EzpoatioD of TheoBophy, pp. 13-15.
» An Outline of Theosophy, pp. 38, 88.
n The Ocooh World, p. 19.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

hood;"^ and Mrs. Besant makes it
an important part of man's task to
sublime matter into spirit.** In short,
it is plain enough that Theosophy, as
understood by its leading exponents,
is broadly streaked with materialistic
tenets. So far at least as psychological
theory is concerned, it rivals the ultra
declarations of such materialists as
Vogt, Moleschott, Biichner, and Ca-
banis.

A detailed description of the imi-
verse as a whole does not appear to
have been attempted by representatives
of modem Theosophy. The domain
with which they are specially concerned
is that complex sphere which serves
as a theater of man's multiplied pere-
grinations. About this they have, or
at least claim to have, a mass of in-
formation that is truly astonishing.
Our earth, they tell us, is one in a
chain of seven planets. This chain is

> Tbe Ooean of Theoeophy, p. 60.
■ Reincaniation, p. 12.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

quite extraordinary, most of its mem-
bers being entirely imknown to astron-
omy as commonly imderstood. Only
our earth, according to Madame Bla-
vatsky, is in the visible domain.^
Sinnett, on the other hand, includes
Mars and Mercury in that domain,
and assumes that only four out of
the seven planets in the chain are
composed of matter so ethereal that
telescopes cannot take cognizance of
them.^ Reckoning Mars as third in
the list, the earth as fourth, and
Mercury as fifth, he supposes existence
on the first and seventh to be of the
Devachanic (or heavenly) type, on the
second and sixth to be astral in na-
tiu^.** Man as a subject of evolution
and progress is imder compulsion to
visit these several spheres in a series
of roimds, and the time required for
the repeated gyrations of his pilgrimage
is nothing less than enormous. Even

** The Key to Theoeophy, p. 87.
>* EeoCeric Buddhiam, pp. 136, 137.
" The Growth of the Soul, pp. 263, 264.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

the number of periods which he must
spend on the earth, is weU-nigh over-
whelming to contemplate. "An indi-
vidual unit, arriving on a planet for
the first time in the course of a round,
has to work through seven races on
that planet before he passes on to the
next, and each of these races occupies
the earth for a long time. Within the
limits of each race there are seven
subdivisional races, and again within
the limits of each subdivision there are
seven branch races. Through all these
races, roughly speaking, each individual
human unit must pass during his stay
on earth, each time he arrives there,
on a roimd of progress, through the
planetary system. "^^

Supposing the recollection of one
journey to be carried on to the next,
the intinerant would have an oppor-
timity to note great changes in the
earth's surface, such as the sinking of
the immense continent of Atlantis in

^ Siniiett, Esoteric Buddhism, pp. 68, fiO.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

the region now occupied by the At-
lantic Ocean, and also the submergence
of the greater part of the continent
of Lemuria, which once stretched from
the Indian Ocean to Australia. The
one event occupied, we are informed
with remarkable precision, a period of
11,466 years, and the other took place
about 700,000 years earlier.^^ With
an insight in like manner greatly
transcending the measures of ordinary
science our authorities assure us that
besides the planetary chain of which
the earth is a member there are six
others within the solar system ;^^ but
any considerable number of details
respecting these seems not to have <
been divulged by the Mtihatmas.

The preference entertained by the
Theosophists for ancient mythology,
over against the inductions of recent
science, is very strikingly illustrated by
their assumption on the very important

s^Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, II. 6-8; Sinnett, Esoteric '
Buddhiam, pp. 64, 65.
^ Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, p. 107.

(

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

relation sustained by the mcx)n to
the earth. "It is the moon/' writes
Madame Blavatsky, "that plays the
largest and most important part, as
well in the formation of the earth
itself, as in the peopling thereof with
human beings. . . . The moon is far
older than the earth; and it is the latter

which owes its being to the former

The moon is the giver of life to our
globe.''^

The superiority of Theosophical in-
formation to the conclusions of science
crops out likewise in the representation
respecting a deep orifice in the polar
regions. "It has been vaguely known/'
says Sinnett, "by occult students for
a long time that in the neighborhood
of the north pole there is an orifice in
the groimd penetrating to inconceiv-
able depths. This wonderful shaft has
been regarded as fulfilling some mys-
terious need of the earth, analogous

><»The Seeret Doctrine, I. 180, 386; II. 64. Compare Judge
Eehoes from the Orient, p. 14.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

to breathing, and it has been supposed
that a similar shaft connects the south
pole with the interior."'^

The fruitfulness of mythology for
the Theosophical mind is also iUus-
trated in notions on the existence and
functions of "elementals/' Madame
Blavatsky gives this name to the
creatures evolved in the four king-
doms of earth, air, fire, and water,
and called by the Kabalists gnomes,
sylphs, salamanders, and imdines.
* These elementals are the principal
agents of disembodied but never vis-
ible spirits at seances, and the pro-
ducers of all the phenomena except
the subjective."^ The Adepts, Sinnett
informs us, have good reasons for
preserving a relative silence respecting
the elementals; he considers himself,
however, qualified to state that they
are semi-intelligent creatures of the
astral light,^ one division of which

n The Growth of the Soul, p. 297.
*> las Unveiled, Preface, pp. zzix,
* Esoteric Buddhism, p. 105.

COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES

may have been formed by the human
will from the ocean of elemental es-
sence, while other varieties are due to
natural evolution.^

The chapter should not be closed
without a reference to world periods
as conceived by Theosophists. With
genuine Hindu prodigality they pile up
the years in their reckoning to a dizzy
height. The Manvantaras, we are
told; follow one another like successive
waves, and a Manvantara is a grand
period comprising 311,040,000,000,000
yeara. The proper history of man
began no less than 18,000,000 years
ago.'^

** The Growth of the Soul, p. 220.

»Blavataky, The Secret Doctrine, I. 36; 11. 9; Judge, Echoes
from the Orient, pp. dS-AO; The Ocean of Theoeophy, pp. 21, 22.

CHAPTER VII

CONCEPTIONS OF MAN AND
HIS DESTINY

To achieve a clear exposition of this
theme is no easy task. The predilec-
tion of Theosophists for the grandiose
and complex, their pedantic multipli-
cation of Sanskrit terms in place of
plain English, and their slovenly neg-
lect of the proper distinction between
the material and the spiritual, combine
to weary and puzzle the mind of the
interpreter. If any should be disposed
to blame us for lack of clarity and
simplicity in our treatment of the
present subject, let him blame still
more the Mahatmas for not having
furnished better guidance to the oracles
of Theosophical wisdom.

In the evolutionary scheme of The-

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

osophy the genesis of man is depicted
as starting from the divine essence,
and then effected through successive
stages up to the present stage of con-
creteness or condensation. "When the
globe was forming/' as one of our
oracles reports, "the first root-race was-
more or less ethereal and had no such
body as we now inhabit. The cosmic
envh-onment became more dense and
a second race appeared, soon after
which the first wholly disappeared.
Then the third came on the scene,
after an inmiense lapse of time, during
which the second had been developing
the bodies needed in the third. At the
coming of the fourth root-race it is
said that the present human form was
evolved, although gigantic, and in
some respects different from our own.
It is from this point — ^the fourth race
— ^that the Theosophical system begins
to speak of man as such.^'^ That the
race w hich eventuated in man proper

> Judce, Echoes from the Orient, p. 23.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

is not represented by fossil remains
in remote geological formations is ex-
plained by the tenuity of the astral
bodies which at that stage were in
evidence.^ In fact, as another in-
formant assures us, in tracii^ man's
genesis we are carried back to a kind
of nebula, a basis of humanity which
consisted sunply m a great cloud of
divine essence."^ A gaseous entity of
the sort indicated could not be expected
to leave definite memorials in the geo-
logical records. That much we con-
cede to the Theosophic apologist,
though not a little taken back by his
identification of the divine essence
with an extended and volatile sub-
stance. But what about our nearer
antecedents, the gigantic men of the
fourth root-race? We suppose that
Madame Blavatsky refers to this race
when she teaches that ^ ^physical man
was originally a colossal pretertiary

t Judge, Echoes from the Orient, pp. 39, 40.

I Leadbeater, An Outline of Theoaophy, pp. 76, 77.

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

giant," and that ''he existed 18,000,000
years ago."* What has become of his
remains? Possibly it will be sug-
gested that the gigantic race, as being
identical with the Atlanteans, went be-
low the plane of observation in the
sinking of the continent of Atlantis.
But, according to the reported figures,
it took that continent 11,466 years
to pass to its ocean grave, and it
would seem that during so long a
period some of the Atlanteans would
have had the discretion to emigrate
to higher and safer ground.

Americans and European are defined
as lineal descendants of the Atlanteans,
or, more precisely, as Atlantean monads
reincarnated.^ As a further aid in
locating ourselves we may note that
in the septenary scheme which The-
osophic msight has discovered to ob-
tain m the cosmos we are in the fifth
sub-race of the fifth race of the fourth

* The Secret Doctrine, II. 9.

* Judce, Echoee from the Orient, pp. 20, 21.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

round.* This location involves the con-
clusion that our cyclic movements must
go on for an incalculable period still. No
pleaof dizziness canbe expected to secure
our releasef rom any of the rounds or from
any of the mmor circles mcluded therein.
In Theosophical anthropology the
assumption that man is septenary in
nature, or includes within the compass
of his being seven principles, is a
fundamental dogma. Yet, strangely
enough, Madame Blavatsky had not
arrived at the knowledge of it at the
time she wrote Isis Unveiled. In that
elaborate treatise she not only failed
to inculcate the septenary nature of
man, but taught a contradictory view,
as appears in this statement: ^^Man is
triune: he has his objective physical
body, his vitalizing astral body (or
soul), the real man; and these are
brooded over by the third — ^the sov-
ereign, the immortal spirit.*'^

•Beaant, The Seven Principles of Man, pp. 60, 70; Sinnett,
Efloteric Buddhism, p. 58.
7 Us UnveUed, II. 588.

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

The list of seven principles in one
of its earlier versions includes the
following: (1) Body, or rupa; (2) vital-
ity, or pranajiva; (3) astral body;
(4) animal soul, or Kama-rupa; (5)
human soul, or manas; (6) spiritual
soul, or buddhi; (7) spirit, or atma.®
In a later list we have these con-
stituents: (1) Physical body; (2) etheric
double; (3) jiva, or life-force; (4) astral
vehicle; (5) manas; (6) buddhi; (7)
atma.^ Another version of the seven
principles, also comparatively recent,
gives this series: (1) dense body; (2)
etheric double; (3) prana or vitality;
(4) kama, or animal soul; (5) manas;
(6) buddhi; (7) atma.^^ The first
four of these are characterized as the
perishable quatenary, and the last
three as the immortal triad. It ac-
cords with the Theosophical dispar-
agement of personality that this term
should be applied to the perishable

8 Judge, The Ocean of Theoeopfay, p. 31.
Sinnett, The Growth of the Soul, p. 166.
10 Besant, Death and After, p. 13.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

quatenary.^^ The true man^ the last-
ing individuality y is left thus to be
identified with manas, buddhi> and
atmai. But it is not altogether clear
how this triad is to be construed. One
exponent of Theosophy tells us that
the spirit, or atman, is no individual
property of any man, but the divine
essence which by its omnipresent light
radiated through buddhi, its vehicle
and direct emanation, pervades the
whole body.^^ A second exponent in-
forms us that both atma and buddhi
are not properly incarnated in the
present race, but occupy the body
simply by shining upon manas, the
principle which is really incarnated.^'
In any case the description of the triad,
in which man's higher self consists,
does not seem to introduce us to a
well-compacted human subject. What
we are led to contemplate is a mental
or psychical principle with which, at

" Beflant, The Seven Principlee of Man, p. 24.
^ Blavataky. The Key to Theoeophy, pp. 100. 101.
» Judge, The Ooean of Theoeophy. p. 66.

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

first-hand or second-hand; a divine ray
is connected.

Among the curious specifications on
the composition and history of the
human subject, which meet us in
Theosophical literature, we select the
following: The etheric double is a
precise duplicate of the dense body,
and the medium through which the
electrical and vital currents play. It
is composed of four ethers, distin-
guished by different degrees of fineness.
Normally the etheric double is sep-
arated from the dense body only at
death, but occasionally spiritualistic
mediums experience at least a partial
separation during the period of earthly
life. In its separate state the etheric
double is dissipated after a brief inter-
val. The astral body is composed of
a different and more subtle kind of
matter. In this body the seven sub-
states of astral matter are combined.
It travels with exceeding rapidity, and
either during earthly life or after

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

may show itself apart from the physi-
cal body. To one who is clairvoyant
the manifestation easily occurs, and in
case of one who is not it is possible
by a greater or less appropriation of
physical matter from the atmosphere
for the astral body to acquire visi-
bility. During earthly life the seven
substates of astral matter are inter-
mingled; but after death they are
sorted into concentric shells, the densest
being outside. These shells may func-
tion in spiritualistic seances. They
must all be disintegrated before the de-
ceased person can pass mto the bliss-
ful region of Devachan. The period
of disintegration, longer or shorter
according to the preceding record of
the subject, is properly characterized
as a purgatorial period. To the region
where the purgation takes place is
given the name of Kamaloka. The
elimination of the astral body leaves
the person with the mmd-body, which
is composed of more subtle matter

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

still, taken from the four lower levels
of Devachan, and disintegrating when
these levels have been passed. It is
e^-shaped, richly colored, and with-
out differentiation of the senses.^*

The life in Devachan, as Theos-
ophists call their heaven, is not of
strictly fixed duration, but is said to
last from ten to fifteen centuries. ^^
The measure of happiness enjoyed in
Devachan is not claimed to be uni-
form for all subjects, but Theosophical
writers are quite unanimous in the
affirmation that no pain, sorrow, or
disappointment can enter there. "It
is,'' we are told, "a specially guarded
part of the mental plane whence all
sorrow and all evil are excluded by
the action of the great spiritual intel-
Ugences who superintend human evolu-
tion."^^ In its type the Devachanic
life is purely subjective, though it is

** See in particular Beeant, Man and Hia Bodies.
^•Blavataky, The Key to Theoeophy. p. 144: Sinnett, Esoteric
Buddhism, p. 143; Leadbeater, Extracts from the Vahan, p. 36.
» Besant, The Ancient Wisdom, pp. 137, 138.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

far from being recognized as such by
the one who has entered into it
"The forms, scenery, etc., which the
consciousness perceives in that con-
dition , are the creatures of its own
mental energies."^^ There results, how-
ever, a gradual exhaustion of force,
passing into semi-consciousness and
endmg m "buiih into another person-
ality."^ It is in this reincarnate state
that the sinner in general must reap
the fruits of his evil deeds. Only
the exceptional criminal is deprived of
the temporary unmunity from suffer-
ings enjoyed in Devachan and is made
to pay in Avitchi the penalty of sub-
jective spiritual misery for a period.^*
In spite of the emphatic description
of the unalloyed bliss of Devachan, it
would appear that the happy state
is not perfectly guarded against an 1

17 KeighUey, Extracts from the Vahan, p. 395; Sinnett, Eaolerie
BuddhiBm, pp. 81, 82.

^ Sinnett, Ibid., p. 88.

1* Sinnett. Esoterio Buddhism, p. 93; Colville, Studies in Tlwot-
osihy, p. 172.

MAN AND fflS DESTINY

element of unrest. Even there arises
the desire for active life, the thirst for
sentient existence, which is the funda-
mental cauise of reincarnation, as of
all manifestation.^ This is the inner
ground of reincarnation operative in
the individual. In addition there is
the working of Karma, that is, of an
unerring law of retribution, an imper-
sonal ever-active principle which grips
the world and determines both the
fact and the conditions of rebirth.
UntU his score has been paid a man
must be reborn, and m rebirth be
given a lot correspondent with his
antecedent record.^^

The doctrine of reincarnation was
taken over from Hinduism into the
fundamentals of Theosophy, though in
the transference there was a modifica-
tion to the extent of rejecting the idea
that a man may be reborn as an
animal. The borrowing is apparent

^ Besant, Reincarnation, p. 37.
" Blavatoky, The Secret Doctrine, I. 634.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

not only from the content of the
doctrine as set forth in standard writ-
ings, but also from the fact that it
was first taken up and promulgated
by the Theosophical leaders after they
had gone to India. In Isis Unveiled,
which was written in America, Madame
Blavatsky repudiated reincarnation as
any part of a regular economy, and
treated it as emphatically exceptional.
^ 'Reincarnation," she wrote, ''that is,
the appearance of the same mdividual,
or, rather, of the astral monad, twice
on the same planet, is not a rule of
nature; it is an exception, like the
teratologics! phenomenon of a two-
headed infant. It is preceded by a
violation of the laws of harmony of
nature, and happens only when the
latter, seeking to restore its disturbed
equilibrium, violently throws back into
earth-life the astral monad which had
been tossed out of the circle of ne-
cessity by crime or accident."^ Nei-

» Iflia UnveUed, I. 351. 352.

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

ther Gautama nor Pythagoras^ she de-
clared; intended to teach a literal
metempsychosis, but employed the
term m its esoteric sense and applied
it to ^^the purely spiritual peregrina-
tions of the human soul."^ In the
face of these unequivocal statements
her subsequent attempt to explain
away her denial of reincarnation^ can
be rated only as perfectly obvious and
perfectly abortive prevarication. 01-
cott, with better discretion, as well as
with larger honesty, stood by the facts,
declaring thai at the time of embark-
ing for India (December 17, 1878),
both Madame Blavatsky and himself
thought that reincarnation is excep-
tional, and that the doctrine was not
fuUy launched till 1881-82, though a
bare aUusion to it occurred in the
Theosophist for October, 1879. The
problem why the Mahatmas permitted
the mistake he gave up as insoluble.^

» Ibid., I. 289.

** The E^ to Tbeoflophy. pp. 187, 188.
» Old Diary Leaves, pp. 283-289.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

From repudiating the idea of reincar-
natioiiy Theosophy went on to affirming
it in most generous measure. According
to its pronouncement, it is not a few
times only that the individual is re-
clothed with a body. "The actual normal
number of incarnations for each monad
is not far short of eight hundred.'^^*

Since monads, or souls, are ever on
hand for reincarnation, the demand
for the creation, emanation, or evolu-
tion of new souls is evidently modified
quite appreciably. We are informed
that nothing of that kind has occurred
since the middle of the fourth race,^
and that "the total number of hmnan
egos included in our evolution is in
roimd numbers about sixty billions."^
How this long-standmg numerical fixity
of the race agrees with the conunon
historical induction as to the pro-
gressive increase of population on the
earth is a question that naturally

M Siniiett, Esoteric Buddhism, p. 61.
. *> Besant, The Seven Principles of Man, p. 09.
* Keicht]«y, Extracts from the Vahan, p. 28.

MAN AND fflS DESTINY

arises. We have not observed that
this question has been satisfactorily
answered. Mrs. Besant's plea that
those incarnated at any time constitute
only a minor portion of the total
number of souls is no real answer.
Since souls are reincarnated after pass-
ing through a proper round of experi-
ences^ or, generally speaking, once in
fifteen hundred years, a reason for a
change of proportion between the in-
carnated and those awaiting incarna-
tion is not apparent.

Lack of recollection of a previous
life, it is claimed, is not an objection
to the fact of preexistence, since the
organs instrumental to reminiscence,
which were operative m the former
stage of existence, have perished; more-
over, Buddhas and Initiates, it is
averred, do remember their past in-
carnations, not to discuss what may
be possible for less advanced spirits.^*

MBIavataky, The Key to Theoeophy, p. 162; Sinnett, The
Growth of the Soul, pp. 54, 55.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

As positive grounds for belief in
reincarnation such facts are alleged
as the appearance of great diversities
within the limits of a given family,
infant precocity, exceptional genius,
and seemmg discrepancy between pres-
ent lot and desert.

The ideal goal toward which the
series of mcamations is supposed to
lead is Nirvana. However, the mean-
ing attached to this term seems
not to have been imif ormly the same
in Theosophical circles. Madame Bla-
vatsky is free to employ forms of de-
scription which imply the complete sub-
mergence or negation of individuality.
The consimunation is not reached,
she tells us, "till the unit is merged
in the all, and subject and object
alike vanish in the absolute negation
of the Nirvanic state. "^^ The immor-
tality of an entity is to be understood
only in relation to its cycle. At the
end of that it is "one and identical

•0 The Secret Doetrine, I. 329, 330.

MAN AND HIS DESTINY

with the Universal Spirit, and no
longer a separate entity.'''^ On the
other hand^ statements occur in The-
osophieal writings which are designed
to convey the impression that the indi-
vidual does not so much suffer extinc-
tion as gain expansion in Nirvana. It
does not appear that anything worth
while has been accomplished toward
clearing away Buddhistic mist on this
subject-
Is Nirvana an absolutely final goal,
or has it only a relative finality?
Explicit testimony on this point is not
often furnished. But if Mrs. Besant
represents the prevailing conviction, the
decision is for relative finality. It is
her plain declaration that the one who
has attained Nirvana returns to cos-
mic activity in a new cycle of mani-
festation.'^ As much may possibly be
implied in the declaration of Madame
Blavatsky that, according to the Brah-

n The Key to Tbeospphy, p. 106.

■ Death and After, p. 69; Ezpontion of Theoeophy, pp. 22, 23.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

manical and esoteric doctrine, there is
an endless evolution and reinvolution
(or reabsorption) of the cosmos.^ This
at least suggests that what is in
Nirvana is evolved again. K Madame
Blavatsky meant to indorse this view,
she would need to explain how the
completely vanished individuals of her
scheme could be recovered. On the
whole, the conclusion is warranted that
Theosophy sets forth no ultimate goal
for men, unless it be in the complete
cessation of personal existence. It does
not offer any prospect of a satisfactory
escape from the fearfully drawn out
alternation between life and death,
birth and dissolution, which has rested
like a nightmare upon the soul of
India.

« The Secret Doctrine, I. 148.

CHAPTER VIII

THE THEOSOPHIC PRINCIPLE
OF AUTHORITY TESTED

Thbosophists claim that their sys-
tem is a reproduction of the ancient
Wisdom-Religion, through the agency
of perfected men called Mahatmas or
Adepts, who have chosen to make use
of the Theosophical Society as an
instrument of conununication. That
this claim is fundamental need not be
argued here. In a preceding chapter
it was shown that the existence and
effective agency of the Mahatmas has
been a very vital assumption with
Theosophical writers, and that it is
only by a most palpable lapse from
self-consistency that they can bring
these matters under the category of
the indifferent or optional. If they
have not been favored with author-

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

itative instructors, it is plainly ridicu-
lous for them to put forth multiplied
dogmatic conclusions which are quite
beyond the domain of concrete verifi-
cation. Apart from the plea of excep-
tional instruction they have not the
slightest warrant to claim for the mass ,
of their propositions any better char-
acter than that of disputable con-
jectures. It is quite pertinent, there-
fore, to enumerate the various grounds
for radical skepticism as to the as-
sumed existence and agency of the
Mahatmas, and we proceed at once
to place these in order.

1, The primary and principal witness,
Madame Blavatsky, is fundamentally .
discredited by her demonstrated ca-
pability of downright falsifying. This
trait is conspicuously exhibited in her
exposition of her relations with Spir-
itualism. As has been noticed, it i
suited her at a time when Theosophy
was in full swing, to speak of SphituaJ-
ism m very disparaging terms. More

AUTHORITY TESTED

than this^ she specified the putting
down of Spiritualism as one of the
main objects of the Theosophical move-
ment,^ and declared flatly that she
never was a Spiritualist.^ How fla-
grantly in these statements she has
contradicted herself can be discovered
by reviewmg her correspondence with
her countryman, A. N, Aksdkoff. In
the fall of 1874 she wrote: "I have
now been a Spiritualist for more than
ten years, and now all my life is de-
voted to the doctrine. I am struggling
for it and trying to consecrate to it
every moment of my Ufe." In Febru-
ary, 1875, she declared, '1 have sacri-
ficed myself for Spiritualism, and in
defense of my faith and the truth I
am ready at any moment to lay my
head on the block. . . . Now the spirits
are my brothers and sisters, my father
and mother. My John King is a

1 Letter to the PaU MaU Qaiette, April 26, 1884.3oited by LiUie,
Madame Blavataky and Her Tbeomphy, p. 16.

* In light, October 11, 1884, dted by Leaf in Solovyors Modem
PrkstesB of las. pp. 228, 229.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

sufficient recompense for all, he is a
host in himself to me," Later in the
same year she spoke as though the
Theosophical Society, which was being
founded, would take up Spiritualism
along with other ingredients. "We
want," she said, "to make an exper-
hnental comparison between Sphitual.
ism and the magic of the ancients by
following literally the old Cabbalas,
both Jewish and Christian." In De-
cember, 1875, she remarked of Theos-
ophy: "It is the same Spiritualism
but under another name."* So by
her own hand Madame Blavatsky
convicted herself of being capable of
barefaced falsehood. Her word, ac-
cordingly, makes a very slender
foundation for the fact of intercom-
munion with an extraordinary class of
men called Mahatmas.

2. Madame Blavatsky's worth as a
witness is very much qualified by the

>For the citations see Solovyo£F, A Modem Priestess o( Us,
pp. 228-265.

AUTHORITY TESTED

evidence that she was capable of
playing the r61e of the charlatan and
trickster. Among the demonstrations
which she afforded of this capability,
that given at Adyar, India, was
especially notable. At this place,
which was made the headquarters of
the Theosophists, the apartments of
Madame Blavatsky were provided with
very convenient adjmicts in the shape
of an occult room with a shrine or
cupboard so placed as to conceal a
hole m the wall and furnished with
sliding panels in the back through
which, when the doors in front were
closed, letters and other articles could
be secretly introduced. These pecu-
liarities m the fumishmg of the house
are not disputed by the apologists of
Madame Blavatsky. They claim that
they were made after her departure
to Europe, early in 1884, by the cus-
todians of the house, Mr. and Mrs.
Coulomb, who were prompted to the
deed by selfish and unfriendly motives.

Oft

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

All parties more nearly concerned were
called to the witness stand, including
Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott.
One or another of the witnesses was
discredited by cross-examination. The
Coulombs, however, were not of this
niunber. It was foimd impossible to
break down any of their statements
that were at all material, and where
corroboration was in the nature d
the case possible it was found not to
be lacking. The result was whoUy in
favor of the genuineness of the damag-
ing letters.^ In the third place, the
handwriting of the letters, accordmg
to the judgment of competent experts,
was that of Madame Blavatsky. Re-
ferring to this point eight or nine
years after the investigation which he
had conducted in India, and having
before him the best that Theosophical
apologists were able to say, Hodgson
felt authorized to declare: "The fact

iProoeedmsB ol tbe Society for P^yehical Benarah, VoL III.

pp. aoi-«oa

AUTHORITY TESTED

remains that in the opmion of the
best experts obtainable the Blavatsky-
Coulomb documents were undoubtedly
written by Madame Blavatsky, and I
know of no expert m handwritmg
who has examined the letters who has
expressed any different opinion."*

The evidence just recounted that
Madame Blavatsky, in the attempt to
give credence to the existence and
agency of Mahatmas, played a game
of deception receives somewhat of a
supplement in the testimony of So-
lovyoff. This Russian gentleman vis-
ited her almost daily for two months
at Paris, and also had frequent inter-
views with her at Wtirzburg. In the
latter place he detected her employ-
ment of trickery for the production
of pretended marvels, and succeeded
in eliciting from her a confession on
the fictitious character of the phenom-
ena to which she had been resorting

•Prooee^nfi of the Society for Ptagrehioal Research, Vol. IX.
p. 146.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

as a means of propagandism. The
confession was indeed quickly with-
drawn, having been made without any
real contrition. Solovyoff was well
assured from that time that the mar-
velous performances of Madame Bla-
vatsky could be reduced to a small ^
residuum. "There is," he says, "one
thing which I cannot explain: how she
produced and stopped at will the
various raps which were heard at a
great distance all round her, and also
the strange sounds like the tinkling
of a small electrical machine. But J
with this manifestation is exhausted
everything m her phenomena which I
am unable to explain. • . . That Ma- "
dame's soft hands, with their supple
pointed fingers, were very clever in
the execution of rapid movements, I
have many times perceived. She had j
probably taken lessons in conjuring f
from some professor of white magic."^
The testimony of Olcott in favor of

7 A Modem FriorteM of Uf, pp. 140ff., 200, 310.

AUTHORITY TESTED

multiplied wonders by the hands of
Madame Blavatsky can indeed be
cited. But here the peculiarity of the
witness nullifies the worth of the
evidence. Hodgson found him so cred-
ulous and uncritical, so destitute of
even ordinary powers of observation,
that he felt compelled to treat his
testimony as practically worthless; and
Madame Blavatsky herself was free
to speak of the weakness of Olcott,
and even styled him ^^a psychologized
baby."«

The alleged communications of the
Mahatmas through W. Q. Judge are
quite unworthy of any serious con-
sideration. Paltry m matter, subor-
dinated to the personal interests of
Judge, and produced under conditions
that in no wise call for the supposition
that anything more than common mun-
dane agency was back of them, they
must be rated by an imprejudiced

s ProoeedingB of the Society for PByohical Reaearoh, VoL III.
pp. 210» 811.

'^'4755

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

mind as manifest fictions. Olcott at-
tached to them this character^ and
Mrs. Besant was convinced that they
were written by Judge, though she
admitted for prudential reasons that he
may have gotten suggestions from
the Mahatmas.^

So the Theosophical claim respecting
the existence and agency of Mahatmas
is shadowed by substantial proofs of
fraudulent pretense on the part of its
leadmg exponents.

3. The supposition that the Mahat-
mas, as a high order of intelligences,
were a principal factor in the com-
position of the standard treatises of
Theosophy is disproved by plain con-
tradictions in the teachings of those
treatises, by abundant evidence that
their materials were drawn mostly from
comparatively modem writings, and by
peculiarities in their style.

In the preceding chapter note was
taken of two glaring contradictions in

'See in particuUur QarreU, Ins Very Much UnTeOed.

1^^

AUTHORITY TESTED

the teaching of Madame Blavatsky —
namely, those relating to the number
of components in man and to the
doctrine of reincarnation. How hap-
pened it that the guardian Mahatmas,
who are represented as virtually the
authors of the treatises in which the
contradictions occur, permitted their
instruments to pen statements so dia-
metrically opposed to one another?
Plainly we have a token here of the
mythical character of these beings.

That the supervisory function of the
Mahatmas was very much of a nullity
is also indicated by the palpable errors
and plagiarisms discoverable m the
standard treatises. Referring to Isis
Unveiled a well-furnished critic re-
marks: **The book contains innumer-
able errors, many of them of the most
rudimentary type. The conmaonest
Sanskrit words are misspelt; the Bud-
dhist doctrine of transmigration is
grossly misrepresented; and the Bhag-
avadgita is confused with the Bhag-

101

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

avata Purana."^^ On the sources from
which Madame Blavatsky drew her
materials, mostly without acknowledg-
ment, W. E. Coleman, who seems to
have investigated the subject to the
very foundations, makes illuminating
remarks. "The books utilized in com-
piling Isis," he says, ''were nearly all
current nmeteenth-century literature.
Only one of the old and rare books
named and quoted from was in Ma-
dame Blavatsky's possession — ^Henry
More's Inmaortality of the Soul, pub-
lished in the seventeenth century. One
or two others dated from the early
part of the present century; and all
the rest pertained to the middle and
latter part of this century. Our
author made great pretensions to Cab-
balistic leammg; but every quotation
from and every allusion to the Cabbala,
in Isis and all her later works, were
copied second-hand from certain books
containing scattered quotations from

^ Farquhar, Modem Religious Movements ia IndiA, p. SSS.

AUTHORITY TESTED

Cabbalistic writings. Not a line of
the quotations in Isis from the old
time mystics, Paracelsus, Van Hel-
mont, Cardan, Robert Fludd, Phila-
lethes, Gaffarel, and others was taken
from the original works; the whole of
them are copied from other books
containing scattered quotations from
those writers. The same thing occurs
with her quotations from Josephus,
Philo, and the Church Fathers. . . . The
Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, is
of a piece with Isis. It is permeated
with plagiarisms, and is in all its
parts a rehash of other books. Two
books very largely form the basis of
this work — ^Wilson's translation of the
Vishnu Purana and Professor Win-
chell's World Life. The Secret Doc-
trine is saturated with Hinduism and
with Sanskrit terminology, and the
bulk of this was copied from Wilson's
Vishnu Purana.*'"

Letters purporting to come from the

u Qted in Solovyoirs A Modem PiieitetB of Isis. Appendix.

103

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

Mahatma Koot Hoomi, and published
in Sinnett's Occult World and Esoteric
Buddhism^ contained plagiarized mat-
ter. One of them, with a well-nigh
incredible audacity, incorporated al-
most verbatim a long passage from a
recently delivered addr^s of H. Kiddle,
of New York,^ Referring to these
letters, as contained in Esoteric Bud-
dhism, Coleman writes: "I find in
them overwhelming evidence that all
of them were written by Madame
Blavatsky. ... I have traced to its
source each quotation from the Bud-
dhist scriptures in the letters, and they
were all copied from current English
translations, including even the notes
and explanations of the English trans-
lators. . • • The writer of these letters
was an ignoramus in Sanskrit and
Tibetan; and the mistakes and blun-
ders in them, in these languages, are
in exact accordance with the known
ignorance of Madame Blavatsky there-
in » Farquhar, Modem Religious Movements in India, pp. 881, 232

AUTHORITY TESTED

anent. Esoteric Buddhism, like all
of Madame Blavatsky's works, was
based upon wholesale plagiarism and
ignorance."^^

What f luijher demonstration could be
desired that the Mahatmas, as a su-
perior order of inteUigences, had
nothing to do with the production of
the standard writings of Theosophy?
These loose, inaccurate, plagiarizing
compilations are fully accounted for
entirely apart from any reference to
transcendent auxiliaries. No doubt
they exhibit a considerable amount of
ingenuity and acumen; but that much
can be credited to Madame Blavatsky
together with no mean capacity for
industrious application.

4. The enlargement of acquaintance
with Tibet in recent years strongly
confirms the mythical character of the
Mahatmas, who are reputed to have
made that land their headquarters and
to have gathered there all-comprehend-

tt Cited in SdovyoTs book, pp. 363, 8G4.

105

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

ing libraries. The reUgion of the
country gives no evidence that the
people were favored with the presence
of exceptionally endowed instructors.
"Primitive Lamaism," saj^ Waddell,
"may be defined as a priestly mixture
of Sivaite mysticism, magic, and Indo-
Tibetan demonolatry, overlaid by a
thin varnish of Mabayana Buddhism.
And to the present day Lamaism
still retains this character/'^* "The
Lamas/ ^ as Waddell also states on the
basis of ample direct investigation^
"do not know anything about those
spiritual medimns — ^the Mahatmas —
which the Theosophists place in Tibet,
and give an important place in Lamaist
mysticism. The mysticism of the La-
mas is a charlatanism of a mean
necromantic order/ '^

The testimony of other recent ex-
plorers is fully in line with that of
Waddell, As Farquhar says: "The

i« The BuddhiBm of Tibet or TAmaiam, 1895, p. 80.
1* The BuddhiBm of Tibet, pp. 128, 129.

106

AUTHORITY TESTED

British expedition sent by Lord Curzon
actually went to Lhassa; so that Tibet
is now well known. Two of the most
honored EQndu scholars in Calcutta
have wandered all over the hills withm
British territory, visiting monasteries
• and libraries. They have brought
many manuscripts both Sanskrit and
Tibetan to Calcutta, How is it that
there is not a scrap of corroboration of
Madame Blavatsky's wonderful story?
No one knows anything of the existence
of the Masters, their lodge, or the
libraries, "^*

When Madame Blavatsky wrote,
Tibet was a land of mystery, and she
naturally felt safe in locating her
wonderful copartners, with their un-
paralleled literary acciunulations, in
that country. But history has xm-
kindly lifted the veil, and the favorite
retreat of the Mahatmas is f oimd to
be as empty of all tokens of their
presence as is any other region.

» Modem Relitioui Movements in India, pp. 447, 448.

107

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

5. Theosophic teaching respecting the
mea^reless stretch of the wisdom, or
secret traditional knowledge, possessed
by the Mahatmas, is burdened with
incredible impUcations. These per-
fected men, it is claimed, have, as a
body, known for ages all that is worth
knowing. All along the Alpha and
Omega of universal science have been
their secure property. How happens
it that the world has received no
discoverable benefit from their marvel-
ous equipment? Why have they done
nothing to heal the manifold woes of
mankind? An ordinary scientist, who
has discovered an effective remedy
for a destructive disease or plague '
would be rated as somewhat of a mon-
strosity if he should make a secret of
his discovery. How, then, have these
mighty Masters managed so to hide
their knowledge that no practical ben-
efit should accrue from it to a suffering
humanity? The one credible answer '
is that they have done nothing be-

AUTHORITY TESTED

cause they have no existence outside
of Theosophical imagination. In so-
called esoteric systems generally pre-
tense is likely greatly to overlap reality.
The distinction of the esoteric wisdom
of the Mahatmas is that it seems to
be wholly a pretense.

6, The skepticism which Theoso-
phists have applied to spiritualistic
phenomena might with entire propriety
be applied to reputed apparitions and
performances of the Mahatmas. If the
spiritualistic medimns, instead of trans-
acting with the real personalities of
the dead; are deceived by a miserable
astral shell, what guarantee is there
that Theosophists, in so far as they
actually suppose themselves to have
converse with Mahatmas, are not
tricked by some wretched counterfeit
of the noble personalities hnagined to
be making visitations? Doubtless the
astral shell is as imaginary as anjrthing
else; but if a thing of that kind can
be thrown up to the Spiritualist, there

109

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

f*-

is no apparent reason whjr something
equivalent may not be thrown up to ,
the Theosophist, As a source of au-
thentic information John King in no
wise needs to be placed below the
Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya
who superseded him in the recognition
of Madame Blavatsky,

The Theosophical basis of authority
is a congenial subject for satire. But ^
we have no inclination to resort to
that expedient. We content ourselves
with the sober induction that the
claim respecting the existence and .,
agency of Mahatmas is quite as desti- I
tute of foundation as is any fiction j
that was ever promulgated.

u«

CHAPTER IX

COMMENTS ON PROMINENT

FEATURES OF THE THE-

OSOPHICAL SYSTEM

Mrs. Besant has been quoted as
saying: "If there are no Masters, then
the Theosophical Society is an ab-
surdity." That there are no Masters
in her sense we think has been shown
with a fan- degree of conclusiveness in
the preceding chapter. The inference
follows then, on the admitted basis,
that any finisher consideration of the
claims of Theosophy can fitly be spared.
It may not be, however, quite super-
fluous to indicate in a very brief and
sunmiary way some of the weaknesses
and mcredibilities of the Theosophical
system.

One of the most obvious exposures

to criticism, on the part of that sys-

111

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

tern, lies in its emphatic preference for
antique mythology and its wholesale
appropriation of the dreams and fancies
which have gained record in that
domain. The primacy accorded to the
moon over the earth is only a more
striking instance of this abnormal pref-
erence. What but the fact that in
antique fancy the moon was made the
seat of a deity vying in practical
importance with the sun-god, furnished
the ba^is of the Theosophical thesis
that the moon is the parent of the
earth, and the source in perpetuity
of life potencies which work effectually
upon the latter? The verdict of sci-
ence on this subject is thrown con-
temptuously aside because it conflicts
with mythological lore. This may be
a maximmn instance, but it is not a
little typical. To this mythological
basis Theosophy adds a scholastic,
formulating bent and an intemperate
borrowing from Hindu speculations.
Now, these speculations, by whatever

112

COMMENTS

degree of subtlety some of them majr
be characterized, are very much m
need of a title to legitunacy. Accord-
in^y, even if we suppose the The-
osophical version of them to be cor-
rect, we are not able to discover for
Theosophy any substantial ground.
It rests on mythological fancies and
certain adventiut)us speculations of
Oriental minds. Of real verification of
its pretentious system it affords not
a shred.

As an outcome of its infatuated
preference for antique mythology and
Oriental speculation, Theosophy grav-
itates into an unfair treatment of the
Bible. As has been noticed, not all
of its representatives transgress in
equal measure in this matter, but in
general they transgress, and the most
authoritative of all in the highest de-
gree. It is simply venom, reckless of
all truth and sobriety, which Madame
Blavatsky shows when she speaks of

the Israelitish Scriptures as a relatively

lis

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

degraded version of the Wisdom-Re-
ligion, and declares that the Pentateuch
from beginning to end is an apotheosis
of phallicism.

A second ground for criticism of
Theosophy is its characteristic predi-
lection for the occult and the magical.
It was generated in the atmosphere
of spiritualistic phenomena. The com-
mimications assmned to be derived
from the Mahatmas were but a refine-
ment on the messages transmitted
through mediiuns, and fulfilled a like
office in gratifying an appetite for
the marvelous. The scathing exposure
which followed the investigation of
the Society for Psychical Research
abridged not a little the disposition
to exploit the favorite phenomena, but
it did not eliminate the predilection
for the occult and the. ma^cal. Mrs.
Besant gave a token that the ^ven
predilection was stiU operative m the
trend of her thinking when she justi-
fied the continued and general use of

COMMENTS

the Latin language in the services of
the church on the ground that the
Latin words are specially efficacious
to set up certain orders of vibrations
that are needed in the invisible worlds,^
To give such prominence to the mag-
ical is equivalent, of course, to a
relative retrenchment of the primacy
of the rational and the moral.

Theosophy is fiuiihermore subject to
challenge on the score of contradic-
tions that reach to the substance of
teaching. In enumerating conspicuous
instances of these we repeat in part
what has already been said. It was
noticed that Madame Blavatsky in a
work assumed to have been written
under the supervision of the Mahatmas
made man's nature trinal rather than
septenary, and pronounced reincarna-
tion a thoroughly exceptional experi-
ence, whereas in her later teaching,
as in that of her copartners, nothing
is more characteristic than the assump-

i Esoteric CluiftiaiiHy, p. 887.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

tion of man^s septenary nature and
destination to a prolonged series of
incarnations. Another contradiction
appears in the exaltation of Theosophy
as the effective safeguard against ma-
terialism, while yet in its general
theory of being it compromises the
primaxjy of spirit over matter, and in
its psychology indulges in multiplied
representations that vie with the most
ultra materialistic propositions that
were ever formulated. A further con-
tradiction is seen in the doctrine of
a relationless Absolute coupled with
the declaration that all that is emanates
from the Absolute, it being quite
apparent that this declaration puts the
Absolute in the relation of source to
product. Still another contradiction
meets us in the assumption of the
invincible unchanging working of im-
personal law, taken in its utter contrast
with the assmnption that no pain,
sorrow, or distress can reach those
who have entered into Devachan.

116

COMMENTS

Now, the subjects of Devachan are
pictured as so loaded down with un-
paid obUgations, so soiled by the
transgressions committed in previous
lives, that they must undergo repeated
incarnations in order to pay off their
score and be purged from their stains.
What, thfen, secures that in Devachan
they enjoy unalloyed bliss and are
inaccessible to any ground or occasion
of disquietude? Plainly, this result
presumes upon a suspension of the
irreversible uresistible law erf retribu-
tion, and opens the door to postulating
the intervention of the personal agency
to which that law is understood not
to be amenable. Mrs. Besant virtually
confesses as much when she ascribes
the marvelous immunity from suffering
enjoyed by the denizens of Devachan
to ''the great spiritual intelligences who
superintend human evolution. ''* This
is equivalent to saying that personal
agency annuls the operation of Karma

sThe Anoient Wiadom, pp. 137, 138.

117

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

or impersonal law for long periods in
the career of every individual, Con-
tradictionS; like these, touching not
superficial but fimdamental matters,
leave the Theosophical claim to author-
ity in an exceedingly bad plight.
" A very serious objection lies against
Theosophy m so far as it is a blend
of pantheism and polytheism. As has
been indicated, it is avowedly and
radically pantheistic. The ascription
of personality to God it denounces as
a belittling anthropomorphism. In
this view Madame Blavatsky stig-
matizes the God of the monotheistic
religions as a blasphemous caricature.
Her assumption is that suitable great-
ness can be attributed to Deity only,
by making him impersonal. Tliat
assumption is not iinusual with panthe-
ists. It is quite destitute, howiBver,
of substantial basis. The endowments
of personality — self-consciousness, in-
telligence, will, and ethical attributes
— ^are the highest that the human

118

■ «

V.' r-c. ir c\ ; j> : !^ :

COMMENTS

mind can conceive. To cany these
up to an infinite or perfect scale and
ascribe them to God is to dignify the
thought of him to the utmost. To
rob him of them, and to predicate
impersonality in the interest of his
greatness, is a self-defeating procedure.
Inevitably the God despoiled of the
highest known categories, instead of
being raised to the supra-personal, is
thrust down to the plane of the
mfra-personal.

As respects the polytheistic phase
which Theosophists have incorporated
into then- system, a sufficient account
for our purpose has been given in the
preceding pages. We only remark
here on its singular barrenness. The
subordinate gods whom they recognize
are distant and ghostly figures wholly
destitute of any power of appeal.
They may afford some compensation
for the awful blank resulting from the
assumption of an impersonal Deity
with whom a vital communion is out

119

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

of question; but that they can satisfy
the yeammgs of nonnal human beings
in any considerable degree strikes us
as quite inconceivable.

In its cosmology and anthropology
Theosophy is chargeable with runnmg
into a fantastic and gratuitous com-
plexity. No other description befits
its a^umption that the earth is one
in a chain of seven planets the most
of which are perpetually invisible,
and that the solar system contains
seven such chains. In like manner no
other description befits the assimip-
tion that a planetary orb is the seat
of seven races, each of which con-
tarns seven subdivisions, and each sub-
division seven branch races, through
each of which the human subject
must pa^ on his fated pUgrimage.
With equal justice the given descrip-
tion applies to the doctrine that man
is made up of seven constituents,
several of which are subjected to
progressive dissipation between incar-

120

COMMENTS

nations, the astral body, for instance,
being described as seven concentric
rings which are evaporated one after
another, until the mind body is reached
and consigned to a similar process.
The scheme is so extravagantly com-
plex that it is a little difficult to im-
agine why it was concocted. Very
likely the idea of the special significance
of the number seven supplied the
initial spur to the construction. That
it can be accounted as any better
than a mere whimsey no one can
believe who is not ready to accept
the theory of authoritative communica-
tions from Mahatmas: and to resort
to that basis of belief would be like
accepting one incredibility on the
ground of a still greater incredibility. <
It remains to comment on the
Theosophical doctrine of reincarna-
tion. The basis for the doctrine in
any form is exceedingly tenuous. The
claim of isolated individuals to have
some recollection of a former life is

121

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

not adapted to carry conviction In
face of the substantially universal lack
of any such recollection. Instances
of infant precocity may be explained
by some peculiarity of the brain or
of the sense organs or of the two in
combination^ and a like explanation
applies to examples of a high order
of genius in the mature. Inequalities
in lot may be attributed to the work^
ing of a general system of law upon
unequal conditions; and in any case
the judgment that those who suffer
in large measure may be recompensed
further on is decidedly more eligible
than the harsh verdict that their suf-
ferings are proof positive that they
are specially ill-deserving and are only
reaping what they have sown m a
previous incarnation. Every experi-
enced and reflecting person knows of
concrete instances where the applica-
tion of such a verdict seems nothing
better than inhuman and slanderous
accusation.

122

COMMENTS

Even if a degree of tolerance could
be accorded to the theory of rein-
carnation, it by no means follows that
it could be approved in the mode and
measure in which it is taught by Theos-
ophy. Taken in the sense of Madame
Blavatsky, Mrs. Besant, Judge, Sin-
nett, and others, it is an incredible
theory. As has been noticed, it as-
simies that the number of human souls
or monads was fixed ages ago, and so
collides with the well-grounded induc-
tion B8 to the progressive increase of
the population. Again, it presumes
upon an economy singularly wasteful
and abortive in its very conditions.
Since, as a rule, the human subject
retains no recollection of previous in-
carnations, he is robbed of the oppor-
timity to learn by experience, and is
sent blindfolded through a succession
of rounds that is staggering to the
imagination to contemplate. Plainly,
to accept the existence of such an
economy is to exclude the belief that

123

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

wisdom controls the universe. Once
more the Theosophical theory involves
an element of unfounded optimism.
Why should it be assumed that the
blindfolded pilgrim will sooner or later
reach Nirvana? Unwarned and un-
guided by a knowledge of his past
experience, he is evidently exposed to
the liability of adding error to error,
and so of increasing with each new
incarnation the sum of an adverse
karma. If in no case a man contin-
uously travels in the opposite direction
from Nirvana, it must be because a
gracious personal agency intervenes in
his behalf. But to admit this inter-
vention is contradictory to the The-
osophic maxim on the remorseless rule
of impersonal law.

A degree of credit has sometimes
been accorded to Theosophy as fos-
tering a more sympathetic attitude
toward the ethnic religions than was
formerly maintained by evangelical
Christianity. Were substantial proof

124

COMMENTS

afforded of the alleged fact, we should
be glad to award to the pretentious
cult this much of credit. It is our
conviction, however, that the more
sympathetic attitude is to be attributed
to a broader and more diligent study
of the ethnic systems, and is due in
very slight degree, if at all, to Theos-
ophy. The most that it can claim
with good warrant is to have given
forth, at second-hand, some of the
truths of the world's leading religions.
Unhappily, it has overtopped these
truths by colossal errors and fictions.

125

PART II
NEW THOUGHT

CHAPTER I

GENERAL SKETCH

While the New Thought movement
is not without pronounced character-
istics, it has no one ora^jle or text-
book, and is not strictly unifonn m
tone and content. The period which
it has covered is substantially the
same as that of Christian Science so
called. One of the prominent sources
of the latter was also a source of the
fonner. In spite of the denials of
Mrs. Eddy, it is historically demon-
strated that she was greatly indebted
to P. P. Quimby of Portland, Maine,
for her religio-medical scheme. The
same genial exponent of mental heal-
ing was one of the effective antecedents
of New Thought. This has been
acknowledged in these terms by a
leading representative: "The New

129

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

Thought movement had as its first
great apostle P. P. Quimby, of Port-
land^ Maine^ and later Julius A.
Dresser, of Boston, and Dr. W. F.
Evans. Dr. Dresser taught and prac-
ticed mental healing, and wrote but
little. Dr. Evans wrote a number
of books, the most important being
'Primitive Mind Cure* and 'Esoteric
Christianity.* "^ Though deriving its
initial impulse from Quimby, the
New Thought movement has prob-
ably drawn quite as largely from
Ralph Waldo Emerson as from him,
Emerson^s pages axe quite often cited
by New Thought writers, and one of
them describes him as ''the greatest
intuitive mind of modem times, who
instinctively saw and felt the oneness
and interrelation of all things/'* A
third antecedent has sometimes been
specified as Hindu thinking. This
much at least is clear: some strains in

i C. B. Pattenon, The Will to Be Well, p. 10.
sHexiry Wood, Studies in the Thought Wocld, 9. 801^

GENERAL SKETCH

the system under review are anal-
ogous to certain phases of Hindu
speculation^ though it is to be ob-
served that any such formal exaltation
of Hindu philosophy and theology as
is characteristic of Theosophy does
not appear in New Thought literature.

Among conspicuous representatives
in recent years Horatio W. Dresser,
son of Julius A. Dresser, may be
numbered. But it is necessary to add
a qualification. In some of his books,
especially the latest, he appears quite
as much the critic as the advocate of
New Thought. Among thoroughgoing
advocates we have Charles B. Patter-
son, Henry Wood, Ralph W. Trine,
Charles B. Newcomb, and Abel L.
Allen.

A very natural inquiry concerns the
attitude of these writers toward the
modem cults which have been so
ambitiously advertising themselves. As
respects Christian Science they con-
fess, that it bears a certain kinship

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

to their own system. This applies
in particular to such conceptions as
unity of being and the power of mitid
over bodily conditions. On the othei
hand they protest against the despotic
concentration of authority character-
istic of Christian Science, and taJce
exception, whether with entire con-
sistency or not, to its sweeping nega-
tion of matter, sickness, sin, and
death. One of their number states
the points of comparison as foUows;
''Christian Science and the Ne\«
Thought agree that all life is one
that all intelligence is one; that God
is all in all. And they disagree or
the foUowing points: Christian Science
says that the visible world is morta
mind [that is, an illusion]; the 'Ne^
Thought declares the visible universe
to be an expression of God's handi-
work. Christian Science asserts thai
sin, sickness, and death have no ex-
istence. The New Thought affirms
that they have an existence; but thai

GENERAL SKETCH

their existence is only limited and
their destruction comes through ri^ht
thinking and hence right living. Chris-
tian Science stands for a great sec-
tarian organization; it stands for slav-
ery of the. individual to an institution
— at least at present. The New
Thought stands for a knowledge of
spiritual truth among aU people and
perfect freedom of the mdividual in
both thought and action, to live out
the life God intended him to live.
Christian Science stands for a wom-
an and a book; the New Thought
movement stands for God manifesting
through the soul of man, for eternal
laws of creation, and for absolute
freedom of the individual to work
out his own salvation. Christian Sci-
ence stands for a treatment of disease
that includes both a negative and an
afl5rmativephilosophy;theNewThought
in its treatment of disease rests on the
omnipotence of God as the one and only
healing power in the universe, and

133

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

is therefore thoroughly and solely af-
firmative/'^

Relative to modem Theosophy very
little is said by New Thought writers.
We notice that one of them appro-
priates the Theosophical notion of an
astral body, and speaks in compli-
mentary terms of the contribution
made by Theosophy to an understand-
ing of man's complex nature.* Some-
what of a leaning, as will be shown
in the next chapter, to the doctrine
of reincarnation, so prominent in
Theosophy, is discoverable in New
Thought literature.

In relation to Spiritualism we find
one exponent of New Thought in-
dulging in the appreciative remark
that it has afforded indubitable evi-
dence of the continued existence of
the human spirit after death.* An
adverse reference, on the other hand,
is contained in the judgment of an-

* Pattenon, The Will to Be WeH pp. 16, 17.
^ NewccHDb, Ftinoiples ci Pqyohio PhiloMpliQr, p|». 4B-W.
Newoomb, All's Bitbt with the World, p. 908.

GENERAL SKETCH

other writer that mediumship, as in-
volving an undue subjection of one
mind to another, is imwholesome.^

New Thought has, as we understand,
no central organization, and m com-
paratively few cases has its con-
stituency been gathered mto distmct
churches. In the attitude assumed
toward the historic churches some
differences are observable. The most
ironic position that has fallen under
our notice is that taken by Henry
Wood. He says: "A few of those
who claim to be exponents of New
Thought have been more or less severe
in their attacks upon conventional
mstitutions. This spirit has no gen-
ume warrant and it does not represent
the New Thought m its purity and
breadth. One of its basic prmciples
is to see the best side of everything.
Whatever the fault of the formal
creeds and doctrines, the ideals of
the church are mainly right. It is

•Pftttenoii, In the Bunliilit of Health, pp. 304, 905.

135

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

not to be destroyed or superseded, but
spiritualized, purified, and illumined."^
Passages as kindly in tone as this
we judge to be thoroughly exceptional.
We find one writer making the bald
statement that the church of to-day
stands as a barrier to all really ad-
vanced religious, philosophic, and sci-
entific thought. "It has become a
lifeless organism, a dead body without
any real or vital belief in its own
teachmgs.''« Another writer scores
ecclesiasticism — ^by which he doubtless
means the historic Christian Church-
as having made for eighteen centuries
a vain struggle "based upon a sterile
and ascetic philosophy, with its gro-
tesque idea of a supreme good."*
A third exponent of the New Thought
platform censures the theologies of
orthodox Protestantism and Cathol-
icism as alike teaching dogmas that
find "their only support in the theory

7 The New Thought Simplified, pp. 133, 134.

8 Patterson, In the Sunlight of Health, p. 28.

> Newcomb, All's Right with the World, p. 21A.

GENERAL SKETCH

and supposition of the separation of
Grod from man/* The same writer
remarks on the increase of crime and
insanity, the depravity, poverty, dis-
ease, and wretchedness which every-
where confront us at the openmg of
the twentieth century, and lays the
blame for the dismal situation upon
the churches, as having crippled men
by their emphasis on human weakness
and dependence.^^ Equally disparaging
statements could be cited from others."
On the whole, the New Thought move-
ment, in every circle where it succeeds
in making its influence felt, must
foster toward the historic churches an
attitude of self-satisfied superiority, not
to say of downright aversion and rad-
ical disparagement. Its message is
virtually, if not formally, "Come out
from among them and find your needs
met in the new reHgion which is now
starting upon its course.

to Allen, The Meange of New Thou«ht, pp. 30. 180ff.
u See in partioalw Trine, The New Alinement of Lif^.

137

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

The expounders of New Thought
have manifested very little ambition
to deal with the specific problems of
biblical criticism. Their method is, in
general; to take the Bible as they
find it, and to employ such portions
of it as are agreeable to their postu-
lates, ignoring or freely contradictmg
the rest. In their view the Bible is
in no preeminent sense a divine rev-
elation. They see no reason why God
should not be supposed to have spoken
through Emerson and Walt Whitman
03 truly "as through Moses SIRt'Fa\iI.
Some of them would not hesitate to
say that among the sacred books of
the world the Bible is the best. Others
would prefer to say that it is the
best for those peoples over whose
religious thought it has been installed,
and reserve a place for doubting
whether it is best for Buddhists,
Hindus, Mohammedans, or Confucian-
ists. Occasionally the judgment crops
out that the grounds of choice be-

138

GENERAL SKETCH

tween religions are not at all sub-
stantial. Thus we read: "The great
fundamental principles of aU reUgions
are the same. They differ only in
their minor details according to vari-
ous degrees of unf oldment of different
people."^ It is to be noticed, how-
ever, that practically New Thought
writers pay special tribute to the
Christian oracles, the number of their
citations from other sacred books being
comparatively insignificant.

The conception of Christ character-
istic of New Thought is purely hu-
manitarian. To be sure, entire readi-
ness is shown to ascribe to him divinity
or deity. But that form of description
is not regarded as bespeaking for him
any exclusive distinction. He may be
characterized ss a God-man, but not
aa the God-man. He may have been
somewhat extraordinary in the clarity
of his recognition of his oneness with
God; in this, however, he simply put

tt Trine, In Tune with tbe Infinite, p. 306.

139

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

on exhibition the normal man. There
is no ground whatever for believing
that his personality diflfered from that
of other men.^^ He stands before us
as the moral ideal, and fulfills the
office of Saviour by example. Even
in his miracles he is not apart from us.
The so-called miracles were perfectly
conformable to law, and indicate the
kind of equipment any man might use
if he would but enter upon his full
mheritance.

In their teaching on the practical
conduct of life New Thought writers
give expression to many excellent max-
ims. The several virtues which may
be regarded as constitutive of Christ-
likeness are strongly and repeatedly
emphasized by them. It may be
questioned, indeed, whether the point
of view from which the emphasis pro-
ceeds is always the best, but that a
full measure of emphasis is awarded
no reader can fail to discover. Love,

» Patterson, The Will to Be Well. pp. 81, 82.

GENERAL SKETCH

charitableness, gentleness, patience,
spiritual mindedness, together with
the avoidance of envy, jealousy, ha-
tred, and every form of unbrotherly
conduct are worthily inculcated. Of
course, it is not at all necessary to go
to the New Thought literature to meet
earnest commendations of the Christ-
like virtues- Still, the industry with
which these virtues are insisted upon
in that literature calls for appreciation.
As examples of finely expressed max-
ims we subjoin the following: "Love
is the greatest success in the world/*
"The ultimate end of life is to love,
not to be loved, although that follows
as a natural sequence." "Love is the
eternal sunshine of life, and to one
living in that sunshine there can be
no darkness." "Love seeks nothing
for itself but the opportunity of ex-
pression." "To think no evil is simply
to have no ownership of it." "Though
the law of nonresistance is looked upon
as weak and impracticable, it is divine

141

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

and conquers." '^Obstinacy is the
mark of a weak will. It asserts itself
in an emphatic and abnormal way
because distrustful of its power.*' "A
man can never be really free who
allows himself to become attached to
or controlled by his possessions.'* "The
only infidelity is the worship of the
golden calf, the reverence for thmgs
material rather than things spiritual."
"To become an instrument of the
Spirit one must eliminate all sarcasm,
all unrighteous judgment, all exclusive-
ness and pettiness, by cultivating the
most generous attitude." "Peace, is
not a stagnant pool; it is a deep-
flowing river." "Absolute confidence
in the eternal wisdom, love, and power
of life is necessary to clear seeing and
right doing."^* Maxims such as these
we regard as the largest factor on the
credit side of New Thought.

^ The dtattooi are from B r e w e r, PMtenoii, Wood* iad NSit»
oomb.

\VL

CHAPTER II

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

We do not find that close dis-
crimination of the factors which enter
into man's being is specially charac-
teristic of New Thought literature-
The writer whose publications are per-
haps the most numerous specifies as
the components of the individual these
three, namely, soul or spirit, mind
and body. He defines mind as the
expression of soul or spirit, and body
as the expression of mind.^ As respects
the grasp of the Jiigher verities, he
disparages the ability of the mental
factor. '*Mind," he says, "can never

' apprehend God. We can rea^n and
thmk about spirit, but we can reaUy

- know it only through spiritual, not

iPftttanoD* The "Vl^ to Be Well, p. 16.

143

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

mental activity."^ A formal expres-
sion of the trichotomist theory, in this
style, is rarely indulged in by New
Thought writers. The emphasis with
them is not so much upon the mind
being the expression of the spirit as
upon the body being the expression
of the mind. In this latter statement
the intention seems to be not so much
to give a precise definition of the
body as to stress its dependence upon
the mmd as its formative principle.
Just how the body, or the material
world m general, is to be construed
is left somewhat in the mist. The
strong predilection of New Thought
for monism, or the assumption of the
thoroughgoing oneness of all being,
stands in the way of making any
positive antithesis, in respect of essence,
between matter and mind or spirit.
On the other hand, to distinguish be-
tween them is f oimd to be exceedingly
convenient in various connections. So

* PftUenon, TIm MeMure of a Mmi, isp. nir.

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

the temptation not to elucidate the sub-
ject too searchingly is operative. One
writer, resorting to a standard found in
Theosophical literature, makes the dis-
tinction between mind and matter to lie
in the rate of vibration. "Matter," he
says, "is mind at a slower rate of vibra-
tion. Mind is matter at a higher rate.
Spirit is infinitely more rapid than either
and rules both."^ How spirit or mind,
equally with body, can be a subject
for vibration the context does not
inform us. The language employed
tends not so much to spiritualize matter
as to materialize mind and spirit.

A recurring distinction is met with
in New Thought literature between
the conscious and the subconscious
mind. Much account is made of the
latter. It is likened to "a great cov-
ered reservoir in which is stored up
the total aggr^ation of past mental
states and activities."^ Again it is

s Neweombt Disecnrery ol a Lost TnSU p. 262.
« Wood, The New Thoogbt Shnplified, p. 43.

145

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

described as the hidden partner which
acts automatically upon the physical
organism, and subtly directs all that
class of activities which is called in-
voluntary.'** More discriminatingly it
is defined as a less conscious phase of
a single selfhood, too copious to be
wholly displayed at one time."* How
important a factor it is supposed to
be among the forces which shape
conduct appears in this statement:
'Terhaps the largest part of our ex-
perience is in the field of the sub-
conscious. A trait or purpose is
developed there long before it appears
above the horizon of our perception.
Long after we have denied a habit or
opinion it is apt to linger there and
color and actuate our life.'*^

The immense emphasis which New
Thought places upon the interconnec-
tion of all beings afifords a congenial
basis for recognizing the fact of telep-

• Wood, The New Thoo^t ahnpKfind, p. 44.

* D nmu , "HxuDMn Rflkaency, p. 131.

7 Newcomb. AU'a Right with the World, p. 149.

146

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

athy, or the existence of a power of
direct communication between minds
placed at a distance from one another.
Not all New Thought exponents have
concerned themselves with the sub-
ject; but some of them have rendered
a very confident judgment in favor
of the reality of telepathy. Thus C.
B. Newcomb remarks: "It is a scien-
tific fact which is being constantly
demonstrated through telepathy that
mind can consciously converse with
mind."* "Thought waves appear to
spread and widen in their vibrations
very much as those of sound and
light. They are also intensified in
their power by being brought to a
focus^ B8 are the sun rays by a burning
glass." He adds: "Experiment in this
field has been so limited that as yet
we have reached only a few definite
conclusions. It appears that the con-
ditions which have produced the most
satisfactory results at one time are

> Principles ol Pqycliio Philosophy, p. 194.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

by no means certain to produce the
same results at another."* A. B.
Olston pronounces with like decision
for the fact of telepathy, and cites
many instances in confirmation. In
his view it is in particular the sub-
conscious, or, as he names it, the
subjective mind, that is operative in
this order of communication. Accord-
ingly, he defines telepathy as ''the
normal communication between sub-
jective minds, independent of the five
objective senses."^®

Not less than telepathy the doctrine
of reincarnation, or repeated incamar
tions, has a congmial basis in paints
of view characteristic of New Thought
It alleviates the difficulty which apart
from it would attach to the ttesis,
that all physical ills have thcar
origin in mental errancy or misdiieeted
thou^t. While not eniunerafced in
the list of acknowledged t^iets, it

• AVi B^t wilk the W«ild. p. Sa.

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

crops out here and there, as appears
in the following sentences: "This
little earth life is not the beginning
nor the end of man^s destiny."^^ "Chil-
dren in this life without doubt are
bemg rewarded or punished for things
done or left undone in a past life."^
"The mills of the gods grind so slowly
that the grist of to-day may have
been put into the hopper m some
incarnation far remote, but doubtless
by the man's own hands, for it is only
our own grist that comes to us through
the mill of life/'^^ "Why," asks the
writer of the last sentence, "should the
phUosophy of reembodiment which has
always been held by the larger part
of the world, mcluding its most dis-
tinguished minds, be so distasteful to
a few who have not until recently been
made familiar with its teachings?' '^* On
the other hand, H. W. Dresser rates

u Patterson, Dondmon and Power, p. 139.
u Patterson, In the Sunlight of Health, pp. 146, 147.
u Newoomb, Discovery ai a Lost Trail, pp. 110, 111.
1* Newoomb, Discovery of a Lost Trail, p. 254.

149

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

the doctrine of reincaxnation as only an
hypothesis, and confesses that he has
found but little evidence in its favor.^*
It i^ characteristic of the literature
with which we are dealing to emphasize
profoundly the power of thought among
the elements of man's equipment. Its
virtue is accoimted practically unlim-
ited. Illustrative statements naturally
will be in special demand when we
come to the healing art of New
Thought; but a few samples of the
ever-recurring strain may be admitted
at this point. "Thought," we read,
"is not only the greatest but the
only real power in the universe."^*
"Will is not, as so often thought, a
force in itself; will is the directing
power. Thought is the force. ''^^ In
proportion as a man opens himself
to the divine influx he takes on the
God-powers. "And if the God-powers
are without limit, does it not then

^Dnmett, Tbe Search of a Soul, pp. 176, 176.
"Wood, Stwfies in tin Thoogfat World, p. 885.
"Trine, Whai AD tin World*t A-Seeking, p. ITS.

150

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

follow that the only limitations man
has are the limitations he sets him-
self by virtue of not knowing him-
self?"^ "The art of living is the art
of thinking, for life has no values
except as thought molds them. . . .
Bight thought means right living/ ^^*
"The personal body is a physical copy
of the individual mmd, and in some
part of its construction expresses its
every thought."^ "The body is what
the mind makes it."*^ "With scien-
tific accuracy, one can make himself
what he will by thinking his thoughts
into the right form, and continuing
the process imtil they solidify and take
outward correspondence."** "It is lit-
erally tme that thought can be ma-
terialized through trained and powerful
concentration."** "Thoughts are living
entities."** -^

» Trine, In Tone with the Infinite, p. 15.
tt AUen, The hUmtmfi 9^ New Thoucfat, iip. 261, MS.
» WiupsAe, Mental Healing, p. 137.
s> FiBttenon, What Is New ThoughtT p. 82.
« Wood, The New Thought Amplified, p. 40.
■ Neweonb, Prindplee of Pqrchie Pfafloaophj, p. 187.
M Newoombk All'a Bight with the World, p. 107.

151

CHAPTER III

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD AND
OF MAN^S RELATION TO HIM

The ruling conception of Grod in
New Thought is that of the Universal
Life. He is also called the Universal
Love and the Universal Intelligence.
On the question whether personality
is to be ascribed to him, most of the
writers, if they do not enter a denial,
show little interest to record an affirma-
tion. H. W. Dresser takes a some-
what exceptional course in raising safe-
gjuards against a pantheistic obscura-
tion of divine personality. He is at
pains to assert that God does not
exhaust himself in his world activity,
that he is in a sense transcendent and
as transcendent essentially unchange-
able; that the sons of God, while not

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

separated from him^ do not become
God, any more than a human father
absorbs his child.^ Moreover, he ad-
vises against thinking of the Divine
Presence as impersonal,^ and declares,
"No man was ever a pantheist in
practical life.'^' On the other hand,
he greatly emphasizes the intimacy of
connection between God and the world.
He speaks of the infinite as "made
perfect through the finite."* He as-
cribes eternity to the world, and adds,
"If a world of some sort has always
existed, there is no need of a theory
of final causes. Teleology gives place
to description. The constitution of
the world is what it is because God is
what he is."* In another connection
he makes room for teleology to the
extent of speaking of the cosmos as
revealing purpose. He says, however,
"The purpose of God is the eternal

1 liCan and the Divine Order, pp. 406. 410, 411.

* A Message to the Well, p. 38.

* Man and the Divine Order, p. 164.

* In Search of a Soul, p. 215.

* Man and the Divine Order, pp. 399. 401.

153

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

expression of the being of God"*-
form of statement which leaves us
still to inquire whether God has an
option m respect of the ends which
he pursues.

The reference of other New Thought
advocates to the personality of God
is distinctly more negative and com-
promising m tone. One of them
writes: "We might say that God is
all the personality in the universe
and much more than personality. God
is infinite love^ limitless and supreme;
but personality is limited."^ Another
remarks: "God is not less but incom-
parably more than personal. Infinite
Mind, Love^ and Law are terms which
doubtless carry to the average mind
a more correct concept of the Supreme
Being than personality."* A third
exponent of New Thought is not at
all distiu*bed by the chaiige of panthe-
ism, and contents himself with asking

•Tlw Plulosophy of the Spirit, pp. 113, 115.
' FtMamm, Tht McMoie of a Man, pp. 142. 143.
•Wood. Stadiet in tin TIkni^ World, p. 188.

1S4

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

the question, ''Is not a spiritual paor
theism more desirable than an absentee
God?"*

In construing man's relation to God
New Thought writers are not careful
to avoid the appearance of a pan-
theistic blend of the human and the
divine. Even H. W. Dresser, in one
of his books, speaks of the higher self
in man as an "individuation of God,'*^®
and with other writers it is a well-
established habit to designate man as
a part of God. The following are
characteristic statements: ''All minds
are substantially parts of one omni-
present mind, which is the basis of
all manifestation."" "There is no
difference between the great universal
Soul and the individual soul, other
than this one thought of differentiation
or individualization."^ "God is aJl;
and, if all, then each individual, you

• AUen, The Menace of New Thought, p. fiO.
^ In Search of a Soul, p. 118.
u Wood, Studiee in the Thought World, p. 180.
»Pattenon, The WiU to Be Well, p. U7^

166

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

and I, must be a vital part of tha
all; since there can be nothing separat
from it; and if a part, then the sam
in nature, in characteristics — ^the sam
as a tumbler of water taken from th
ocean is, in nature, in qualities, i
characteristics, identical with th£
ocean, its source. God, then, is tfa
infinite Spirit of which each one i
a part in the form of an individua
ized spirit."^'

Proceeding from this point of vie^
exponents of New Thought are ver
free to ascribe divinity to man. Ir
stances occur in which the divin
name is given him, divine functioi
are predicated of him and his identit
with God is as good as affirmec
The reader is told, "There is n
separation between your soul and th
soul of the imiverse. ... In the deef
est sense you are the great univei
sal soul."^* "Man is the persons

u Trine. What All the World's A-Seeking, p. 137.
^* Patterson, The Measure of a Man, p. 123.

156

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

expression of the one creative Spirit;
so that purposeful evolution is a
multiplying of self-conscious, divine
personalities."^ "Divine incarnations
must be multiplied and perfected until
God shall find adequate expression in
humanity."^^ "Man is God incar-
nate."^^ "Cast thyself into the will
of God and thou shalt become as God.
For thou art God if thy will be the
divine will."^ "God is Love. God
is Law. We are Law. God and Love
and Law are One. We are Love. We
are One. We are God."^* "We have
latent within us such powers over
matter, as we have but just begun
to dream. In the scheme of creation
we shall ourselves rank as creators,
with ability to disintegrate and rein-
tegrate at will such forms as we shall
choose to bring into visible exist-

1* Wood, StudiM in the Thoucht World, p. 28.
» Ilud.. p. 226.

I' Trine, What AH tlw World's A-Seeking, p. 122.
>B Newoomb, PrineqtIeB of Psyohio Pbiloflophy, p. 139.
^ Rodcrudan Aiioin eited by Newoomb, Prindplee of P^yehie
Philotophy, p. 181.

167

AND NEW THOUGHT

ence."*® ''We are already warranted
in boldly claiming that we have no
limitations except those we have placed
upon ourselves."*^

These lofty descriptions are meant
to be applied not to the exceptional
man, but to every man; not, indeed,
in all their specifications to the present
estate of every man, but to the ulti-
mate estate. New Thought has no
tolerance for the supposition that any
human being can fail of the ideal
consmnmation. It repudiates the no-
tion of lost souls.** "Man," we are
informed, "is ever pressing steadfastly
toward life, toward a knowledge of
truth. All his sins and all his mis*
takes, when seen and understood in
their right relation, have only been
stepping-stones to greater knowledge,
to truer understanding."** "All pass
ultimately over the same road in

* Newoomb, Disoovery of a Lost Trail, p. 255.
^ Newoomb, Prinoiplfls of Fkyohio Philoflophy, p. 134.
s> Dresser, Man and the Divine Order, pp. 141, 385.
■ Patterson, What Is New ThoughtT p. 45.

158

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

general, some more rapidly, some more
slowly. The ultimate destiny of all
is the higher life, the finding of the
higher self, and to this we are either
led or pushed."^

The inclusion of man in God, the
making him a veritable part of Deity,
prepares a difficult situation for the
champions of New Thought when they
addre^ themselves to the questlcm of
the reatity of sin, sickness, suffering,
and death. It is somewhat enigmatic
that a veritable part of the perfect
and Holy One should be a subject
for any form of evil, and especially
of moral evil.

In dealing with this difficulty New
Thought expositors have been pushed
into a kind of apology for evil, moral
delinquency included. They are led
to define it as a means to something
higher than itself, or as purely neg-
ative, or as a lack of development, or
as a partial expression of life, or as a

M Trine, What AU tin World's A-SMking. p. 14S.

159

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

product of ignorance. Their writings
abound in such sentences as these:
"The followers of the new doctrine
believe that ultimately only the good
exists, all seeming wrong being a
means to an end higher than itself."**^
"When fully interpreted evil ceases to
be evil, and becomes educational
experience. "^^ "Just as darkness is
the absence of the light of the sun,
so evil is the absence of the knowl-
edge of the law of God."^ "What
we have called evil proves to be
only a negative condition — a transi-
tion state, an imperfect ripening."*
"Good and evil are merely compar-
ative terms — ^labels, one might say,
for different degrees of attainment."*
"All wrong mental conditions — ^malice,
hatred, envy, pride, jealousy, sensuality,
and kindred emotions — ^are indications

^ Dresser, In Search of a Soul, pp. 225, 226.
>• Wood, The New Thought Simplified, p. 89.
^ Patterson, Dominion and Power, p. 90.
^ Newoomb, Prindplee of Psychic Philo0(v>hy, p. 10.
^ Patterson, The Measure of a Man, p. 40.

160

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

of a lack of development/*^ "Evil rep-
resents the undeveloped or partial ex-
pression of life."'^ "Selfishness is at the
root of all error, sin, and crime^and igno-
rance is at the basis of all selfishness."^*
Occasionally the felt demand to
make as little as possible of evil drives
the apologist into an apparent denial
of its existence. We have noticed
one writer m particular whose denials
on this theme, taken in their verbal
form, are quite as prominent as his
affirmations, and to discover the
method of the reconciliation of the
two orders of statements is rather
taxing. On the one hand, he criticizes
Christian Science for its negations, and
declares, "If you say, in good faith,
that there is no sin, sickness, or dis-
ease, you have simply succeeded in
hypnotizing yourself into an erroneous
belief."^ On the other hand, he lays

so Patterson. The Will to Be Well, p. 15.
*i Patterson, Dominion and Power, p. 160.
*s Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, p. 89.
■ Patterson, The Will to Be Well, p. 123.

161

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

down propositions that might have
been penned by Mary Baker G. Eddy.
What statements in Science and Health
are more radically negative than the
following? — "There never was any real-
ity in sin, disease, or death."**
"Nothing is evil in and of itself.
Evil is the result of the false im-
aginings we indulge in."^ "The great-
est lesson man has yet to learn is
that all things are good; that evil
, is no thing; that it seems to be, but
in reality is not."'^ "In reality there
is neither sin, sickness, nor death.
God^s law can neither be broken nor
set aside. "^^ Such language we regard
as a striking testimony to the exigency *^
which is thrust upon New Thought
by its fundamental doctrine that man
is a veritable part of Gk)d. Starting
from such a premise, how can anyone
who has any respect for God, restrain

** Patterson, In the Sunlight of Health, p. 152.
» Ibid., p. 264.
«• Ibid., p. 433.

t7 Dominion and Power, p. 35.

162

THE CONCEPTION OF GOD

his desire to minify or even to abrogate
the fact of sin? Most New Thought
writers do not proceed to the latter
extreme, but obviously their leading
postulates bring a pressure to bear
upon them in that direction.

163

CHAPTER IV
THE THERAPEUTIC SCHEME

The very tenuous hold upon reality
which is ascribed to evil and the
limitless efiScacy which is assigned to
thought serve as the foundation of the
therapeutic scheme which is so prom-
inent a factor in New Thought. In
its diagnosis of bodily ills they are
referred to just one source. That
soiu-ce is mental errancy, penrerse or
misdirected thought and the abnormal
feeling which it engenders. "Mental
healing," we are told by one writer,
"has fully demonstrated that the imag-
ing faculty of man is responsible for
all the ills from which he suffers.
One disease is no more imaginary
than another. . . . Oiu* thoughts are
first ideated, then expressed out-
wardly. The expression must corre-

THE THERAPEUTIC SCHEME

spond to the inner thought. If this
is inflamed; inflammation will make it-
self felt in the body. . . . The many
inflammatory diseases that come from
poor circulation and poisoned blood are
simply expressions of inflamed mental
conditions.''^ In an equivalent strain
another writer assures us: "All disease
is in the emotional life. It is a distiu^b-
ance of the circulation which proceeds
from thought."^ "The fevers and dis-
tempers of the body only externalize
those of the mind."' The same writer
does not shim to declare that "death in
any form is suicide,"* and another
writer makes a statement scarcely less
arresting when he informs us that
"rags, tatters, and dust are always
in the mind before being on the body."^
Among mental aberrations fear is
specially emphasized as a prolific
source of diseases. "All disease," it

I Patterson, In the Sunlight of Health, pp. 207, 233.

* Newcomb, PrindpleB of Psychic Philosophy, p. 167.
s All's Right With the World, p. 237.

« Ibid., p. 187.

* Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, p. 33.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

is affirmed; "results from fear."* In
answer to the objection that children are
not responsible thinkers,theplea is made
that "they are little sensitive mirrors,
in which surrounding thoughts and con-
ditions are reflected and duplicated."^
As all bodily ills flow from erring
mental activities, so health is the
product of normal thinking; and as
our thinking is subject to our direc-
tion, there is no real need to be
afflicted with any sort of physical
ailment. "The mind," so run the
New Thought niaxims, "can make the
body whole and strong, or the mind
can make it weak or diseased; the
result is purely a question of mental
poise or lack of it."* "We make our
bodies what we will to make them
when we observe the laws of life. J
We may realize this so thoroughly j
that we can have our heaven here I

* Newoomb, Principles of Psyobio Philo«ophy, p. 190.
7 Wood. StodiM in the New Thought World, p. 131.
> PMtencm, What Is New Thoucht? p. 74.

1^^

THE THERAPEUTIC SCHEME

on earth/'* "No matter what ances-
tral trait has been reproduced, no
matter what taint in the blood has
shown itself anew, it can be wholly
overcome in any individual life. . . .
Man is his own creator and can
dommate what his mmd has ex-
pressed."*^

In the mental dealmg with disease
two expedients are available, that of
resolute affirmation of health, and that
of serene acquiescence in the ailment.
We do not discover that in the ther-
apeutics of New Thought the two are
carefuUy distinguished. The writer
last cited proffers this advice: "Let
us make friends with our adversities.
Nothing else will so quickly disarm
their power and neutralize their
sting."" This is the method to em-
ploy against nervous prostration. "Let
us begin by ceasing to oppose — ceas-
ing to fight our troubles, declaring

• Pftttenon, Tbe Will to Be Well, p. 51.

* Neweomb, Difleovery d a Lost Trail, p. 16.
n Ibid., p. 187.

167

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

their nonentity, while we give ear
to the thought of the eternal man:—
*our own true self."^^

Their zeal for mental healing makes
the advocates of New Thought ex-
ceedingly sparing of appreciative ref-
erence to the ordinary type of medical
science. They commonly mention it
only for criticism. We notice, however,
that one of them makes these signifi-
cant concessions: "Materia medica fits
the present stage of man's develop-
ment. ... In the category of acute,
contagious, and rapid disorders, the phy-
sician is, and for some time to come
will be, indispensable."^^ "Until the sub-
jective quarantine has been intelligent-
ly erected that which is objective can-
not be entirely disregarded."^*

In many of the citations which have
been given the note of optimism has
been very conspicuous. Nothing in
fact is more striking in the New

" Newcomb, DiBCovery of a Lost Trail, p. 189.
u Wood, New Thought Simplified, pp. 158, 160.
i« Wood, Studies in the Thought World, p. 246.

1«&

THE THERAPEUTIC SCHEME

Thought system than its unlimited
optimism. It abolishes — ^in theory —
every shadow, and leaves not one re-
gret to be entertained by any human
being. The literatm-e of the world
may safely be challenged, we think,
to outbid such optimistic strains as the
following: *'A11 things work together
for good whether we call them by
the name of good or evil.''^^ The law
of betterment runs through eveiything.
"There is not a pin-point of personal
experience we can discover that has
ever been outside its action.''^® "Christ
could not have suffered for others,
knowing the grandeur of their destiny
and that every moment of existence
aU things work together for good to
everyone. "^^ "True life is unutterable
sweetness, in which all the shadows
of our yesterdays are woven into the
soft tints of the morning sunshine."^*

>* Patterson, Dominion and Power, p. 54.
1* Newcomb, Principles of Psychic Philosi^hy, p. 30.
^ Newcomb, All's Right with the World, p. 56.
^ Newcomb, Disooveor of a Lost Trail, p. 26.

169

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

"The world is a garden of delights,
a veritable Eden to those who are not
blind and deaf."^® "The advent of
the new man, Nietzsche's super-man,
is near at hand, the man who shall
enter into a imiversal, a cosmic con-
sciousness, and look out on all life
as a ruler, a king having dominion
and power over all things, holding in
his own hands the keys of life."*^
"It may well be that the next hun-
dred years of human progress wiU
show man as victor over disease and
pain, show him master of his own
physical organism. Crime and pimish-
ment for crime will be things of the
past, and poverty should be un-
known."^^

i« Newoomb, All's Right with the World, p. 82.
« PsttenoD, What Is New Thought? pp. 144, 140.
u Psttenon, Ib the Sualight of Health, p. 62.

170

CHAPTER V

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

Much less space will be required
to pass upon the merits of New
Thought than has been given to an
exposition of its teachings. Here we
are very far from accepting the judg-
ment of its advocates. In the first
place, we do not find that it is at
all distinguished by close and indus-
trious reasoning. On the contrary,
its method Is superficial, oracular, con-
clusive only to the one who is easily
overawed by assertion or is already
at the start more than ready to be-
lieve. It assumes that recent thinking
has reached a list of indubitable in-
ductions and that these are identical
with its own premises. Substantial,
intelligible proofs of these premises are
nowhere discoverable in its literature.

171

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

Not one of its writers impresses us as
specially well read in philosophy, ex-
cept H. W. Dresser, and his philosophi-
cal investigation evidently tended to
precipitate graduation from character-
istic tenets of) the New Thought fra-
ternity.^

Among the sweeping but unfounded
assmnptions of New Thought none
takes precedence of that which defines
the nature of God and of man's rela-
tion to him. If not chargeable as'^a
whole with canceling the personality
of God, it is either feeble and halting
m its affirmation of personaUty, or,
going a step further, exposes it to
doubt. Some of its representatives, to
save themselves from the appearance
of relegating God to the impersonal
range, speak of him as superpersonal.
But this expedient accomplishes

1 Professor J. B. Anderson in hia trenchant book entitled New
Thought, Its Lights and Shadows, notices in particular the lack
of philosophical competency shown by New Thought writers,
in that their system ia a self-contradictory blend of ™nt^»»tn Mid
pluralism.

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

nothing worth while. As was indi-
cated in the criticism of Theosophy,
the super-personal is an empty phrase.
A God who cannot be described as
personal; in other words, as possessed
of self-consciousness and will, lacks the
highest attributes of which we have
any conception, and for all practical
purposes is lowered to the impersonal
plane. The appeal to the notion, or,
rather, to the word, "super-personal,''
is a poor shift, and whoever is de-
ceived thereby is not wise.

A motive for skimping the person-
ality of God plainly arises from the
fundamental postulate on the oneness
of life, the affirmation that God is
the Universal Life in which men are
included as mtegral parts. The diffi-
culty of construing this proposition is
not slight. In the first place, the
notion of distinguishable parts in God
has a queer look. That notion be-
longs to the domain of aggregates or
masses. A physical entity made up

173

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

of a great number of molecules may
conceivably be distinguished into parts,
so many molecules being assigned to
one division, and so many to another.
But what can be meant by a part
of spirit, a part of the infinite Spirit,
with which God is identified. Is God
a sum of parts, an aggregate? He
might be if he were simply a very
extensive physical entity, though even
in that case there would be occasion
to demand a unitary power above him
to coordinate the parts; but being
Spirit, he cannot be a sum of parts.
Intelligence, will, and moral perfec-
tions cannot be cut into sections, or
dished up with a cup as may be done
with the water of the sea. To make
men parts of God amounts to a denial
that the proper character of spiritual-
ity belongs either to God or men.

Furthermore, on the basis of that
representation a question properly
arises as to the age of men. If they
are not to be accounted eternal, then

174

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

God must have been subject to increase
by their addition, and the contingent
finds place in him. But, on the other
hand, where can any warrant be found
for rating men as eternal? Their
plain characteristics as mutable and
changmg, beginning with an infin-
itesimal mental capital and advancing
by the path of hard experience, belies
the supposition; revelation does not
countenance it, and scientific investi-
gation discovers for it no scrap of
evidence. In short, this partitive con-
ception of God rejects rational inter-
pretation. How greatly preferable is
the long-standing conception of Chris-
tian philosophy, that man is rather a
product than a part of God, a product
of the divine eflBciency which so oper-
ates to initiate and to sustain his
being as to constitute him an agent
as well as a product.

The moral implications of the New
Thought postulate are as troublesome
as the metaphysical. How does it

175

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

agree with the perfect insdom of God
that parts of hhn should nin into the
abject folly in idiich not a few men
indulge? How does it harmonixe with
his spotless holiness that parts of him
should be stained with such abominar
ble wickedness as men often have
placed to their account? How unite
in one Being, and a Being figured as
the supreme ideal, these flagrant con-
tradictions? The task is one that lies
close to despair. New Thought writers
confess as much when they tone down,
curtail, and at the extreme even abol-
ish the notion of sin. Herein they play
a role that is at once anti-biblical,
anti-ethical, and anti-religious. The
Bible profoundly emphasizes the ex-
ceeding sinfulness of sin, and from
beginning to end seeks to foster a
vital sense of its demerit. The safe-
guarding of ethical interests requires
that the antithesis, the veritable gulf
between righteousness and unrighteous-
ness, should be vividly apprehended^

176

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

Religion is made farcical where no
place is left for compunction over
affronts to the laws of God. It is,
of course, true that a man may dwell
morbidly on his sins; but it is equally
true that he may morbidly, yea ab-
surdly, palliate or ignore his sins.
And New Thought, it strikes us, vir-
tually invites to this soul-scathing
. indifference and frivolity. When it
asserts that every pin-point of expe-
rience works for betterment, that all
^ things work together for good to every-
. body, it leaves the sinner with no log-
ical ground for repentance. There is
' no reason why he should cherish a
^ regret for anything. A penitent con-
fession becomes a kind of burlesque
performance. On the New Thought
I basis the publican made a fool of
■ himself when he prayed, "God be
merciful to me a sinner!" He ought
rather to have said : "O Lord, I gladly
recognize that I am a divine being.
I am as good as you are. I am God

177

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

incarnate." As for the Pharisee^ he
was perfectly right in so far as he
took a high view of himself. His
mistake was that he did not clearly
recognize his own essential divinity,
and the equal divinity of all men.
In neither the publican nor the Phar-
isee could a broken and contrite spirit
properly be required, and Paul's ex-
hortation not to think of ourselves
more highly than we ought to think
belongs to an old-fashioned and ob-
solete regime. As divine beings we
are bound in deference to our actual
status to eschew every appearance of
self-abasement. New Thought writers
would not, of course, state the matter
in just this form, but many of their
sayings logically prepare for this out-
come, and it is noticeable that one
might traverse their books from be- ij
ginning to end without coming across L
a sentence designed to commend the ji
obligation to repentance or confession. )o
In relation to its heaUng art New

An*

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

Thought can claun the merit of poww-
fully mculcating the efficacy of a
serene temper. Much that is urged
on this score can cordially be recog-
nized in sane medical practice. But
no respect is paid to normal limits.
Assertions of the most extravagant
kind abound. The exclusive virtue
assigned to thought is thoroughly one-
sided. As H. W. Dresser has re-
marked: "Life is in truth partly an
affair of thought, but not chiefly so.
Man is in part what thought has
made him, but far more the result
of will. It is, indeed, important to
make right affirmations, but of far
more consequence to do something
than to 'hold the thought.'"* The
psychology of New Thought at this
I point is closely akin to that of Chris-
^ tian Science. Both the one and the
i other relatively ignore the will and
I lay the whole stress on certain lines
i of thinking. Evidently, this point of

* A Message to the Well, p. 77.

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

view involves a certain affinity with
dogmatism, as placing correct thinking
at a premimn. New Thought writers,
it is true, are much given to berating
dogmas. But they are thinking of
the dogmas of the church which come
into conffict with their own views; and
the curious feature in the case is that
they cannot see that they themselves
are among ultra dogmatists in the
spirit in which they hold and champion
their cherished views.

The assertion of the limitless power
of thought, or, in other terms, of the
mind, over the body is simply an
extravagant dogma. It is an assimip-
tion for which no suitable proof can
be afforded. Whatever competency
may belong to mind in another range^
minds of a finite order, such as we
possess, have no complete sovereignty
over the body. The beauty and nor-
mality of the saintly soul do not in
the actual dispensation guarantee even
an average state of health. The saint.

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

in point of physical condition, may be
utterly distanced by the athletic out-
law who makes a living by inhuman
violence. Doubtless a revolution in
mental tone may be attended by con-
siderable physical results. The very
extravagance of the New Thought
tenet on the power of mind over body
may help to make it a potent medicine
to a specially conditioned subject. But
a virtue which pertams to a fiction
because of its extravagance cannot
authenticate the fiction or turn it into
a truth. A wide induction is certain
to show up the fiction as outlawed by
a vast preponderance of facts.

Even should the assumption of New
Thought on the power of mind to
shape bodily conditions be substan-
tially conceded, a problem for the
healing art would still remain. To get
the ideal result the mind would need
to be normally directed. And that
is an end most difficult to achieve.
The body reacts upon the mind. The

181

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

environment works as a powerful fac-
tor. The subconscious mind, as New
Thought teaches, may be a great store-
house of aberrant tendencies. With so
many currents impinging upon con-
scious mind and tending to bias think-
ing, the probability of imperfect control
is simply enormous. The patient may
be told that his one care should be to
keep the mind in the right channel of
thought. But that is a most trying
task, and the serious attempting of it
may awaken anxieties. It is possible
to get anxious over the fulfillment of
the demand not to be in the least
degree anxious. The liability to this
experience has been illustrated in verse
as follows:

I joined the new Don't Worry Club,

And now I hold my breath:
I am so scared for fear I'll wony

That I'm worried most to death.

A scheme more workable in the great
majority of cases than that of New
Thought, and decidedly more salutary,

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

is the one which teaches the patient
that the power of the mind over the
body, though appreciable, is not un-
limited or imconditional, that physical
good is subordinate to higher ends,
and that the wise thing to do is to
cast oneself upon eternal Wisdom and
Love, and to pray for ability to re-
ceive with cahnness and sweetness of
temper the appointed result.

An occasion for some degree of
criticism of New Thought is furnished
by the prominence which it gives to
the therapeutic value of virtuous tem-
pers. It may be legitimate enough to
place considerable emphasis on this
point of view. Virtuous tempers.
Christlike dispositions, imdoubtedly
are favorable to the health of their
possessor. But they have a value
that cannot properly be measured on
a therapeutic scale. They are the
glory of the hmnan spirit, the con-
tent of spiritual excellence, and the
obligation to cultivate them would be

183

THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT

overwhelming even if their relation to
bodily weal were perfectly indifferent.
We are glad that the advocates of
New Thought so strongly inculcate
them. We cannot, however, escape
the feeling that the prominence which
is given to then- connection with physi-
cal health tends to place them below
the plane of their proper dignity and
worth. Things that are central may
affect the superficies; but, if they are
too constantly associated with the
superficies, their centrality ceases to be
duly rated.

Reference was made to the opti-
mism characteristic of New Thought.
The extreme to which it runs maJces
it just as dubious in tendency as the
extravagant pessunism which has been
taught in recent times. Moral stren-
uousness certainly cannot be promoted
by a system which loudly proclaims
that there is no danger ahead, that
all experience serves as a stepping-
stone to better things, and that every

SOME GROUNDS OF CRITICISM

man is absolutely sure of unalloyed
happiness. A soporific of this kind
is absurdly out of place. The somber
side of life and destiny may indeed
deserve the lesser attention, but to
ignore it is to substitute roseate mis-
leadmg dreams for reaUties.

While, therefore, it is true that
the New Thought movement has given
worthy expression to not a few val-
uable truths, we are none the less
forced to conclude that it has enthroned
dogmas which are false and mischiev-
ous in tendency. The good which
New Thought inculcates can be foimd
in our common Christianity. There
is no serious occasion, therefore, to
turn to its Uterature for any substan-
tial furnishing.

185

! .

it.."

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